The Brandeis Hoot 11/25/2015

Volume 12 Issue 15

www.brandeishoot.com

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass.

Anita Hill, WGS, appointed University Professor

By Hannah Schuster Editor

Professor Anita Hill said that the ruling in the Supreme Court case Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) v. The Inclusive Communities Project (ICP) Inc. is a step toward eliminating systemic racism when she spoke at the celebration of her appointment as University Professor. A crowd of over 300 attended the address in Sherman Function Hall on Thursday, Sept. 24.

The case addresses “disparate impact theory” in housing, meaning policies are illegal if they harm a protected group.

Hill said the case “recognizes the systemic effects of discrimination” and addresses how “unconscious bias” is entrenched in society. Hill also discussed the role of the university in examining and addressing discrimination.

Interim President Lisa Lynch and Interim Provost Irving Epstein introduced Hill, praising her work and contribution to the school.

According to Lynch and Brandeis’ faculty handbook, “The title of University Professor is awarded to faculty members … whose work cuts across disciplinary boundaries, who have achieved exceptional scholarly or professional distinction within the academic community, and whose appointment will enhance” the university’s reputation. It is the highest designation for faculty.

Brandeis University’s Board of Trustees appointed Hill a University Professor in March, according to Bill Schaller, executive director of integrated media, in a BrandeisNOW article.

Hill came into the public light when, in 1991, she accused now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearings. Many believe the allmale Senate Judiciary Committee mistreated Hill and ignored her claims.

She studies racism, sexism, law and social policy, according to her Brandeis profile.

Hill said that each year she awaits “blockbuster Supreme Court decisions” that will impact areas such as sexism, racism and homophobia. Every year, she asks herself, “Will this year’s decisions bring us together, or will they exacerbate the disparities that we know exist, but seem helpless to bridge?”

In Texas, the ICP sued the TDHCA under the Fair Housing Act for providing more low income housing tax credits to developers in minority neighborhoods as opposed to majori-

anita hill speaks on housing discrimination The Heller and WGS Prof. was awarded by

the title of University Professor by President Lynch and Provost Epstein, below.

September 25, 2015

SU survey stresses importance of financial aid

By Emily Sorkin Smith Editor

This week, the Student Union sent out a survey to the student body to gather data about students’ use of financial aid and its impact on all aspects of their daily life, both at Brandeis and after graduation. They intend to share their findings with the Board of Trustees, connecting them more to the needs of students in hopes that they can make more informed financial decisions. The survey has been sent to students via an email written by Student Representatives to the Board of Trustees Grady Ward ’16 and Emily Conrad ’17.

In an email to The Brandeis Hoot, Ward expressed his desire to give the Board of Trustees a more complex and accurate sense of how students use their financial aid money and how it continues to affect them after graduating. Because the Board is limited in its ability to interact with students, “they tend to focus on the aggregate and quantifiable: financial aid statistics, retention percentages, alumni earnings, etc.,” Ward explained.

Statistics alone cannot allow board

members enough insight into the financial lives of students.

“We want to paint an accurate and representative picture of the non-quantifiable impacts of the marginal decisions that the board is tasked with making (such as raising tuition, accepting students in different proportions and fundraising for financial aid). We think that it is critical that Board Members simultaneously understand the reality in the numbers, and grasp the impact that those numbers represent,” Ward wrote.

Among these non-quantifiable factors are the potential career limitations graduates might experience because of their student loan debts.

Some graduates, Ward argued, feel forced to pursue higher-paying jobs instead of ones oriented toward social justice or their passions because they need to pay off loans for their time at Brandeis. Financial aid can have a profound affect on students’ relationship with Brandeis and determine whether or not the institution, as See SURVEY, page 3

Reliving the past with Prof. Fellman

photos by adam lamper/the hoot

student protest poster from anti-vietnam movement

For more, see page 6

photo courtesy robert d. farber university archives

Inside this issue:

&

special collections department, brandeis university

See HILL, page 3

Maker Lab Prints

News: Asian stereotypes & health Page 4 3D Printing Club gears up for new Opinion: Rights over statehood in Middle East Page 13 year and upcoming print-a-thon Arts: Gaga’s soulful song Page 11 Features: Page 7 Features: Halacha revisited Page 7 Editorial: Students need update on Pres. search Page 12

Coven wins 500

Men’s soccer coach Mike Coven reaches milestone in victory over Babson on Tuesday

Sports: Page 5

NEWS

2 The Brandeis Hoot

September 25, 2015

Einstein’s menu becomes fully kosher

By Charlotte Aaron Staff

The Brandeis administration removed bacon from Einstein Bros. Bagels service at the end of August, less than a week after it was added to the newly expanded Einstein’s menu.

“Given Einsteins’ uniquely central location at the front door to our campus, we decided it was not appropriate to include pork products on their newly expanded menu,” said Jim Gray, vice president for campus operations.

The absence of pork on the Brandeis campus is a long-standing tradition.

The university, self-defined as “nonsectarian Jewish-sponsored,” was created with an intention of admitting Jewish students at a time when top universities set quotas to limit admittance of Jewish students, regardless of qualifications.

Brandeis has a Jewish student body of over 1750, or 47% of undergraduate students, according to Hillel at Brandeis University. To respect its Jewish population, Brandeis gives academic breaks on Jewish holidays, hosts traditional Jewish events for its student body such as Break the Fast after Yom Kippur and provides kosher dining for students on campus.

From its founding in 1948 to 1987, Brandeis did not provide its students with pork products on campus, according to an article published March 2014 in The Justice. In 1987, to attract a more diverse student body and satisfy Asian-American food requests, pork was introduced to only Usdan.

In 1990, when Prof. Stuart Altman became interim president, he reversed the policy and removed prok without much discussion, as he felt it had become “a much bigger issue

than the reality,” Altman said in an interview with The Justice.

The decision was reversed once again in the late 1990s when pork was reintroduced to Usdan, although the specifics regarding this decision are unclear.

Yet after approximately 15 years of pork in Usdan, with the introduction of Sodexo to campus, Usdan once again become pork free. Today, all dining options on campus are porkfree except Dunkin’ Donuts and Currito. For students who keep strictly kosher, Sherman Dining Hall, Louis’ Deli, and Dunkin’ Donuts’ pastries are certified Kosher.

With the short-lived service and then removal of pork at Einstein’s, some students felt frustrated with the university’s policies. “I think it’s weird that they have it at some places and not others,” said Eli Levy ’18, a strong advocate of pork products at Einstein’s.

“Just because some students do not eat pork should not mean the rest of the student body should not get to eat pork,” he said.

When asked about how the brief addition of pork products at Einstein’s affected their dining options, strictly kosher students explained that the addition of bacon on the menu did not affect their dietary needs, contrary to the beliefs of students who wanted to keep pork off the menu as to not prevent their peers from enjoying Einstein’s. Because Einstein’s has never been a certifiably kosher cafe, strictly kosher students do not eat there.

While the issue of pork on campus is a practical one for students who are concerned about availability of food for kosher students, other students such as Ben Notis ’17 believe the issue is less about food itself and more about respecting the Jewish tradition

and history on campus.

“Pork is seen as a symbol in both Jewish and Islamic religions as … the forbidden food almost. It would send a message to Jewish students that we aren’t going to be respectful. It wouldn’t be very welcoming I think,” Notis said.

Bringing pork to campus takes away from the Jewish traditions at Brandeis, said Notis. “Dissolving identities to make everybody happy—I don’t really agree with that,” Notis said.

In a random survey of 100 Brandeis students conducted by The Brandeis Hoot last week, 81 students said they would like Einstein’s to sell pork products and 19 students would not like Einstein’s to sell pork products.

Seventy-five of these students are mostly indifferent, 19 are strongly pro-pork, and six are strongly against serving pork.

Sports entrepreneur discusses success with students

By Abigail Gardener Special to the Hoot

At last week’s Entrepreneurs Forum, Jordan Fliegel, founder, president and chairman of CoachUp.com, spoke about the start-up experience in Lee Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 22.

He played basketball at the high school, collegiate and professional levels, and attributes his success in college basketball to a private coach.

This success due to one-on-one coaching gave him the idea for his business.

The purpose of CoachUp is to connect athletes to private coaches and trainers across the country. “It’s like Uber or Airbnb, but for sports and fitness training,” Fliegel said. “One of the things we’re trying to do is really tell the story of what you can achieve with some help and guidance, not only in academics and tutoring, but this also applies to sports.” The process is simple: The athlete shares their location and training goals, and CoachUp searches its database and suggests three coaches who the athlete might find to be a good fit. The athlete can then browse through these

and other coaches’ profiles and book a session with a coach once they feel they’ve found the right match.

One of the things that makes CoachUp so appealing is its partnership with professional athletes who vouch for the effectiveness of private coaching. CoachUp’s main demographic is kids who play sports across the country.

“At the highest level all professional athletes have private coaches, but the real market is the 40 million kids across the country that play competitive sports … So we’re trying to use the stories of the best athletes in the world, the authentic stories, to sell our product to the 40 million kids,” Fliegel said. Helping to do this are New England Patriots player and XLIX Super Bowl Champion Julian Edelman and 2015 NBA MVP Stephen Curry. His own coaches are even in the CoachUp database.

“This partnership represents a way for me to pay it forward and help kids all over the country. It’s an extension of how much coaching has meant to me and helped me throughout my life. No matter their sport or skill level, kids should have access to

great coaches to develop their game, hone their skills and build their confidence,” Curry said in a statement on CoachUp’s website.

Fliegel attributes the success of the start-up partly to that of living in a digital age. “I couldn’t have started this business ten years ago. Everyone has a smartphone. This is an inherently mobile business … We didn’t have to build smartphones, we didn’t have to build technology there, we just layered in our app on top of it. When you start a business now, you’re in many ways assembling different pieces and pulling together things under your brand and with your pricing structure and things like that … it’s become so easy to start a business now.”

When asked what his most valuable asset was when starting CoachUp, Fliegel responded with one word: passion. “I had experience as both an athlete and as a coach, and I realized how inefficient it was on both sides … and I decided to do something about it. That passion I have for sports and coaching and mentoring, that keeps me going and I think that passion helps recruit other people. People want to change the world.”

photo from internet source

Brandeis fall elections: Student Union spotlight

By Rachel Bossuk Staff

Nathan Greess ’19, a graduate of Concord Academy in Massachusetts, is one of two elected Class of 2019 Senators. He plans to major in economics and politics with a possible minors in history and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

On campus, Greess is involved in Brandeis University Students for NARAL and plans to be a part of BADASS, the Brandeis Academic Debate and Speech Society and Brandeis Democrats. Greess loves to dance and has been doing so for many years.

“To accomplish anything requiring university input, we must have a senator with the ability and skills to advocate for a result rather than promise it,” said Greess. He wants to be a serious and dedicated senator who achieves results. In addition to being a strong advocate for the class

of 2019, Greess wants to improve on-campus dining, expand efforts to combat sexual assault on campus and improve safety for students on and off campus.

Kate Kesselman ‘19, a New York City native, is the other Class of 2019 Senator. She is involved in many clubs on campus such as boxing, theater, pottery club and a cappella. In high school, she helped restructure her school’s rubric and grading system.

As senator, Kesselman hopes to “make Brandeis the best it can be.”

She has clear goals she wishes to accomplish this year and believes that with time and persistence she can create change.

Hannah Brown ‘19 is the newly elected senator for North Quad. She plans to study international business and International and Global Studies (IGS). From Longview, Texas, Brown plans to become involved in Krav Maga Club, Yoga Club, Model UN, as well as some community service clubs.

Brown has nine goals she plans to

achieve as North Quad Senator: high standards for cleanliness and decency, a dorm bonding event, having activities on the lawn and in Polaris Lounge, implementing further sustainability initiatives, the creation of North Quad social media, a complete and accurate representation of North Quad’s interests, fast access to campus resources and information, more social justice initiatives, and supervision for the area’s maintenance. She hopes to serve as someone to talk to for support or advice.

Max Whitmore ’18 is the newly elected Castle Quad Senator. He studies computer science, economics and philosophy. From Wayne, New Jersey, Whitmore runs on the cross country and track teams, is a grader for Calculus 10A, tutors children in math in the greater Waltham area and loves the outdoors.

As Castle Senator, Whitmore wants to work to bridge the gap between the students and the Brandeis faculty and staff. He believes himself to be passionate and empathetic in addition to bleeding “Brandeis blue.”

Abhishek Kulkani ’18 was elected Village senator. Abhishek studies computer science and economics and is a member of ski team, quiz bowl, amnesty and debate team to name a few.

As senator, he is willing to learn about and address all of the varied interests and issues of his fellow residents. He promises to “facilitate discussion on virtually any decision [he is] to make as senator and there by ensure all voices are actually heard.”

Kulkani recognizes the diverse group of students that live in the Village and plans to take that into consideration when tackling issues as senator.

Mitchell Beers ’17, of Schroon Lake, New York, is Ridgewood’s senator. He is double majoring in Health: Science, Society and Policy (HSSP) and Anthropology. He is the coordinator for Waltham Group Blood Drives and has also been an Orientation Leader. This will be his fourth semester as a senator on campus.

As a representative for Ridgewood, Beers plans to be the chairperson for the Campus Operations Committee

through which he plans to advocate for new workout equipment, water fountains, vending machines and game tables throughout campus. He especially looks forward to “promoting the transparency of university actions and creating an inclusive environment for us to grow in, where all voices are heard.”

Sam Krystal ’17, from Woodbridge, CT, is this year’s senator for the off-campus community. He studies HSSP and is a Waltham Group coordinator as well as a sexual assault bystander trainer.

Krystal’s goal as senator is “to better integrate the off-campus community into on-campus life. I would like to figure out better on-to-off-campus transportation options.” He plans to invest his time in providing tangible, helpful programs and events that cater to and are fueled by the interest of the community. Krystal wants to hear all constructive suggestions from his fellow students and encourages his peers to contact him over Facebook so as to make sure their voices are heard.

September 25, 2015

The Brandeis Hoot

NEWS

3

Hill speaks on social justice in professorship ceremony From HILL, page 1

ty white neighborhoods, claiming this led to segregation with minorities clustered in already low-income neighborhoods.

In the past, Hill explained, it was not enough to prove a group suffered discrimination as a result of a policy. One had to provide evidence of intent to discriminate through the law.

“Either you agree that you can prove discrimination by showing the effects of discrimination, or believe that you … should be able to prove discrimination only through showing the intent to discriminate,” said Hill in addressing the two philosophies.

The lower courts in Texas ruled in favor of the TDHCA according to this precedent. The court, however, ruled in a 5-4 decision that the Housing Authority’s practice was unconstitutional, allowing statistics demonstrating the disparity in low-income units between neighborhoods to serve as evidence.

“The ruling opens the door for addressing institutional bias and implicit prejudice,” in housing regarding race, class, familial status and other matters said Hill.

Hill said the debate over how to prove discrimination goes back to the Civil War, citing literacy tests and poll taxes as examples of “facially neutral” laws that the court overturned when examining “grandfather clauses,” allowing whites whose ancestors voted prior to the 15th Amendment to circumvent the tests.

Hill then gave examples in which, years later, the court

ruled against defendants failing to prove intent to discriminate.

In the 1960s, Hill said there was “a new wave of facially neutral policies that had a discriminatory effect.”

The Washington, D.C. police department, Hill said, employed a verbal test for recruits that, according to Hill, was four times as likely to exclude blacks than whites. Two “would-be police officers” sued the District; however, there was statistical evidence of discrimination, not proof of intent, so they lost the case.

Hill said there is “generations of rank discrimination that gets built into systems, that never gets questioned, you know, because it’s a part of tradition,” listing examples of unconscious bias. She

cited companies that schedule meetings in the evenings posing difficulties for those with childcare responsibilities and the tradition of golf outings and other “exclusive clubs” for men.

She discussed the process of reaching a decision, describing how the Justices and lawyers argued for two hours about whether the phrase, “made otherwise unavailable” in the Fair Housing Act, referred to effects or the “actors’ intent.” During oral arguments, Hill said, Ginsburg discussed how, “the problem of housing discrimination is systemic,” and about education, transportation, neighborhood services, employment and policing in addition to housing.

Research in the social science

Special to the Hoot

On Friday, Sept. 11, the Department of Community Living introduced Comcast’s “Xfinity on Campus” video service to the residential student population. As of now, Brandeis is one of 27 schools that has adopted this service.

The livestreaming service grants access to over 170 channels and thousands of on-demand shows.

The service may be accessed by web browser or iOS/Android app. Its cost has already been factored into campus housing fees. As a result, it is only available to students living in on-campus housing.

The Department of Community Living announced several events in conjunction with this new service.

On Sept. 14-17, Comcast representatives were available to speak with students about Xfinity on campus. The representatives conducted raffles and provided incentive offers at these information sessions. “They were very helpful. I was there early, and the representatives I talked to both heard out my problem about long loading times and helped me to troubleshoot so that the problem was fixed. I was able to sign up for a $10 premium service and receive $50 in AmEx gift cards,” Brian Dorfman ’16 said.

According to Comcast’s website, Xfinity on Campus “gives students the ability to watch their favorite shows, movies and sporting events anytime, anywhere on campus.” It is a radical shift from the “communal lounge television” of the past. On-de-

parts.”

Coming to Brandeis 17 years ago as a guest lecturer, Hill is now a professor at the Heller School, and teaches in the Afroand African-American Studies Department, the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department, and the Social Justice and Social Policy Program.

Hill completed her bachelor’s at Oklahoma State University and her law degree at Yale University.

“I just feel like I have been all across the university, not because I couldn’t figure out where I wanted to be, but because I wanted to be in just about every place,” said Hill, who joins Prof.

David Hackett Fischer and Prof.

Steve Goldstein as current University Professors.

Senators bring FA data to Trustees From SURVEY, page 1

photo by adam lamper/the hoot

Univ. rolls out free cable streaming

By Elianna Spitzer

is helping to correct these biases, according to Hill. She spoke about Justice Louis Brandeis, stating that Brandeis introduced “scientific and social science data” to law, and changing the way of responding to bias.

Hill then turned to the role of a university in correcting issues of systemic discrimination. She believes universities should teach their students how to analytically question systemic discrimination and to support scientific and social science research aimed at addressing social discrimination.

She noted that the next generation of “Supreme Court Justices,” are in school today.

Hill said Brandeis can work to decrease discrimination under its motto, “truth unto its innermost

mand streaming erupted in popularity within the last decade. Major content providers such as Netflix and Hulu launched their streaming services in 2007.

The Xfinity on Campus platform, launched in 2014, seems to be the next step in the progression of on-demand service. The key is that it enables a student to livestream 170 channels to their preferred device.

This is a notable difference in comparison to other on-demand services that release shows after they premiere on network television.

In addition to the basic channel package, Comcast offers upgrades in the form of additional services. A student may select a bundle of up to five services. The options include HBO, Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, The Movie Channel, Sports Entertainment Package, and Digital Preferred. The cost of the upgrade is a monthly rate that depends on the package. It begins at $9.99/month.

According to Brandeis students, the most important aspect of this new initiative is the access it grants to programs that, based on their content, should be watched in real time. Sports

“

games, reality television and awards shows are more readily available based on the Xfinity on campus platform.

“With [most] reality TV, the big thing is knowing who wins, and it helps you stay ahead of spoilers,” Hannah DeRoche ’19 said. Live coverage also helps sports viewers stay on top of the latest news. “I watched the Patriots game and the Seahawks game. I had a positive viewing experience,” Robert Singer ’19 said. He added, “It wasn’t very glitchy, so it was fun to watch the games.”

The service is in its beginning stages. As such, the performance level of Xfinity on Campus has yet to be fully tested. As of now, the reviews appear hopeful. In an email, Tim Touchette of the Director of Community Living, wrote, “I have tested the service and I can tell you firsthand that you will find this is a vast improvement over what we provided in the past.”

Student reviews on quality seem similarly positive. “I’m a fan. It was a little laggy to be honest … but It’s also live TV, so there’s that trade off,” said Samuel Lieb ’19.

Ward put it, “remains financially accessible to all students in the country.”

The anonymous survey, in addition to demographic questions, asked students about their experiences with the Office of Student Financial Services, how their opinions about Brandeis have changed because of their financial situation and how their post-graduation plans might have changed based on their financial situation. One question, answerable on a scale from 1-9, allows students to rate whether “Brandeis’ financial aid policies allow its students to pursue careers in social justice?”

The end of the survey includes a request for students to discuss their personal financial situation in anonymous, peer-conducted interviews. No questions on the survey are required, and any emails provided will be, according to the survey, completely disassociated from any survey responses.

According to the Undergraduate

Admissions portion of the website, 54 percent of the class of 2019 received some form of need-based financial aid. The class of 2018 was offered a total of $9 million in grants, with the average amount of need-based award being $30,710. The university awards several merit scholarships and fellowships in addition to need-based aid.

Despite all the aid that Brandeis provides, many students have to take out loans and find the cost of a Brandeis education to be prohibitive.

Collegefactual.com, a website that uses statistics to track student debt, shows that about 55 percent of incoming students take out loans, with an average of over 22,000 in debt after four years of school.

In 2013, Brandeis tuition became a topic of concern when former President Jehuda Reinharz received over $1 million for his part-time work despite spending cuts and tuition increases.

The board meeting at which the findings will be presented will take place on Monday, Oct. 26.

It was a little laggy to be honest … but It’s also live TV, so there’s that trade off Samuel Lieb ’19

”

photo by tova weinburger/the hoot

NEWS

4 The Brandeis Hoot

September 25, 2015

Hunger and Homelessness launch another Brandeis Be Our Guest

By Michele Lehat Speical to the Hoot

Brandeis students are invited to donate their guest meals to Waltham’s homeless community as part of the sixth-annual Brandeis Be Our Guest Program through Tuesday, Sept. 29.

The program, run by Hunger and Homelessness Coordinators Rose Wallace ’16, Max Parish ’16, Lily Elderkin ’18 and Mira McMahon ’18, has already collected 262 guest meals, as they work to reach their annual average of about 600 meals per academic school year.

Parish refers to the three- to fourweek time slot for collecting meals as the “guest-meal harassment period,” in which members of Hunger and Homelessness petition Brandeis students to donate their future wasted

By Claire Zhao

Special to the Hoot

A panel addressed generational conflicts and racial stereotypes that contribute to Asian students’ high expectations in their academic and social lives. The event, held at the Intercultural Center on Friday, Sept.

18 was titled “You are not your GPA: How race contributes to the stereotype,” and sought to normalize Asian student’s struggles through shared personal experiences.

The panel speakers included Professor Xing Hang (HIST), Dr. Aileen Lee, a psychologist at the Psychological Counseling Center (PCC) and two Brandeis students, Eric Lin ’16 and Coco Tivambulo ’16.

“We want to talk about the pressure we think we put on ourselves, how our relationships with our families and the traditions or values we have learned from our families can contribute to this pressure that we put on ourselves,” said Lee explaining the aims of the discussion.

The panelists discussed the internalization of external pressures and addressed how these pressures often

meals.

In previous years, student volunteers helped transport the food from Usdan Dining Hall kitchen to the Community Day Center of Waltham, a homeless shelter located around the corner on 16 Felton Street, according to Elderkin. “They’re really generous,” Elderkin said about the Usdan workers who put together the food to be donated.

The 600 meals donated in previous years “amount to enough food to feed about a dozen folks one meal every week for the entire academic year,” Parish said.

Waltham Group has been around since 1966, however, the Brandeis Be Our Guest Program was launched five years ago by a student named Elizabeth Stoker ’13 who realized the potential for helping the homeless, as she observed an immense amount of unused guest meals at Brandeis go to

photo from internet source

waste.

Both the wasted food and her passion for helping the homeless led Stoker to forge a deal with the campus-dining provider in which she and the coordinators of Hunger and Homelessness could collect students’ donated guest meals. In turn, the dining provider agreed to donate one to two pounds of food for every guest meal collected from a Brandeis student.

Since its founding, the program has

gained widespread popularity across campus and has received positive feedback and results. Parish strongly believes that the program benefits the Waltham community, as many of the homeless members they serve do not know where their next meal will come from.

“Our ultimate goal as an organization is to empower those who endure poverty to get back on their feet and achieve a sustainable lifestyle,” said

Parish. “We can’t possibly expect a person to maintain a full time job or even think about paying rent if he or she can’t even afford a plate of food for the day.”

In addition to providing meals to those who experience food insecurity, Hunger and Homelessness also provides case management services to the guests at the Waltham Day Center and trains student volunteers at the beginning of each semester.

Asian and Asian-American student experience broken down in panel relate to mental health concerns.

“The pressure we put on ourselves increases our risk of these mental health symptoms: anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, avoidance, missing classes, not wanting to face people for time periods,” said Lee who hopes that “sharing these stories with each other” will minimize risk.

Each panel speaker shared their own cultural backgrounds and personal stories about when they first became aware of certain pressures and how they reacted. The participants discussed the stress involved with Asian stereotypes, choosing occupations, the progression of parent to child relationships as the child ages.

One speaker detailed an experience in which they realized a large part of the reason they chose to raise their hand and be vocal in class was to break the stereotype that Asians are quiet. Many of the panelists and speakers in the audience could relate to the being compared to others such as their siblings, friends, celebrities and strangers who had a “High School Honor Roll” bumper sticker on their car.

The discussion often circled back

to the importance of family origin, putting pressure on them to succeed in many frontiers of their life. Many reported putting too much on their plate, feeling the desire to micromanage and aim for perfection.

The participants stressed the importance of a support system, especially when external pressures are harming one’s mental state.

This event aimed to connect the struggles of individual students to a universal experience. The Xi Kappa Fraternity co-sponsored the event with the PCC. Last week, at the Town Hall meeting with administrators, Jamie Wong ’17 asked a question about the university’s commitment to its Asian and Asian-American student population.

“We would like to mobilize and organize on our part but with the knowledge that there is genuine interest to have these conversations,” said Wong.

Interim President Lisa Lynch responded, affirming that she is committed to diversity.

In an email to The Brandeis Hoot, Eric Shen ’16, President of Xi Kappa stated that he agrees “with President Lisa Lynch’s decision of emphasizing diversity at Brandeis.” Shen feels that

Brandeis is already diverse. However he hopes for more dialogue between Asian-American communities.

“I feel like clubs are competing with one another for more members, recognition, etc. to the point where there’s so much tension between these groups that nothing gets accomplished,” Shen wrote. He hopes to see increased dialogue between the executive boards of different clubs so that they may work together to educate Brandeis students on the, “the different facets of Asian-American culture.”

Shen explained that Xi Kappa’s national philanthropy, the National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association (NAAPIHMA), has a mission of shedding light on the mental effects of pressures.

“The number one thing I believe is crucial is just opening a dialogue in order to find a common goal as [Greek Awareness Council] Xi Kappa has done with the Brandeis PCC,” Shen stated. After talking with Lee, both groups realized they had a similar vision to bring these issues out into the open, so over the course of a month, they arranged the panel, ac-

cording to Shen.

In a follow up email with The Hoot about the event, Lee discussed wellness workshops the PCC has planned for the year. Lee said the NAAPIHMA contacted Brandeis discussed a workshop on Asian American students’ mental health.

“The group talked to me about the struggles they noticed in themselves and in their friends, and how we don’t talk about our struggles, and how this affects our wellbeing and mental health,” said Lee. Lee named “family pressures, cultural expectations and microaggressions” in classrooms as potential topics for the workshop.

“Many of us from Asian and Pacific Islander background don’t always feel comfortable sharing our struggles, for fear of shame and burdening others,” Lee reflected.

She believes events like last Friday’s panel are important because they help to “destigmatize mental health disorders,” and encourage students to speak up and ask for support. Lee hopes to see more of these conversations in order to “decrease the sense of isolation, shame and self-imposed pressure.”

Dr. Pamela Silver speaks on genetically modified bacteria

By Hannah Stewart Staff

Dr. Pamela Silver discussed the possibilities of genetically engineered bacteria and using sunlight to cause bacteria to construct desired products at her lecture, Designing Biology for Health and Sustainability to Brandeis students, faculty and community members on Tuesday, Sept. 22.

Silver graduated with a B.S. in chemistry and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles respectively. She is currently a professor, as well as one of the founders of the Department of Systems Biology, at Harvard Medical School.

Her lecture was broken down into two parts: the first health-related, looking at the possibilities of genetically engineered bacteria, and the second oriented toward sustainability and using sunlight to cause bacteria to construct a desired product.

“I’m trying to ... take lessons from nature and try to apply them to real-world problems,” she said. All of

her experiments involved using bacteria to sense a stimuli, which would then cause them to perform a desired action.

The first half of the lecture, alternatively titled Sensing in Dark Places, “attempts to understand and program the microbiota of the gut,” said Silver. “My dream for a long time was, in a sense, to build biological computing, where any cell would sense an event, tell me when that event happened … and then do something … we think that this could have some kind of universal application.”

These experiments involved altering the genetic code of E. coli bacteria, causing it to express a specific physical change, such as a change in color, after being exposed to a specific stimuli. Such stimuli could include exposure to a drug or the presence of inflammation. The bacteria would be ingested and as the microbe travels through the digestive system, it would be exposed to a multitude of environments.

In the event that the bacteria encounter the specified stimuli, the

physical change would be visible after the microbe is excreted. This type of genetic engineering could prove to be a useful diagnostic tool because the bacteria will retain its physical change several days after the initial exposure. Other potential uses of this kind of technology include the potential to internally administer localized therapeutics for chronic diseases, especially those that are colon-related.

The second half of Silver’s lecture considered “how we try to re-engineer that into organisms that don’t normally sense light or have a rhythm to their lifestyle.”

On Earth, the sun is the original source of all forms of energy, yet humans utilize only a small fraction of what is available to us, said Silver. As an example of the potential of solar energy, Silver reported that Brazil uses solar power to help produce sugarcane, and that they are now on target to double their sugarcane crop, which would be enough to supply the entire world demand for ethanol fuel.

For this portion of her research, Silver collaborated with a colleague, Dr. Daniel Nocera, a professor of en-

photo from internet source

ergy at Harvard and is widely recognized as a world leader in renewable energy research.

Nocera has invented an artificial leaf, which harnesses sunlight and uses it as a catalyst to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, exactly like a natural leaf would. Silver suggests using bacteria that eat hydrogen to make desired products. Together, these inorganic and organic components are called “the bionic leaf.”

Silver used genetically engineered bacterium, called Ralstonia, that eat hydrogen to produce fuel molecules.

She has confirmed that her bionic leaf is already slightly more efficient at using sunlight than natural plants and algae. “Moreover, we can get them to produce something,” said Silver.

To conclude her lecture, Silver described the leaf ’s potential uses: “The dream was really local and personalized production … the idea is, can this be cheap enough and efficient enough that it can be used in the developing world ... and also the nice thing is … [you can] engineer bacteria to make whatever you want.”

September 25, 2015

Crew looks to broaden horizons

By Lily Wageman Staff

One of Brandeis’ hidden gems is the club rowing team. The team was established in 1986, in true Brandeis fashion, because of the passion and initiative of two students. Since its founding, the team has expanded into the ranks of Division III club sports as a co-ed organization. A few recent accolades for the team include: Women’s NECRL League Champions (2009), Men’s and Women’s NECRL League Champions (2012) and Textile River Regatta, where the Novice Men’s Four won a Gold Medal. The club is divided into the novice program for beginner rowers and the varsity team for returning rowers or those with previous experience.

Continuing this momentum and keeping up with competitive rowing programs across the country this past season, the varsity team made semifinals at the Aberdeen Dad Vail regatta.

This year the team welcomed thirty novice rowers, with experiences ranging from being on a competitive team in high school to those who have never participated in an organized sport, and everything in between, according to the team’s public relations liaison, Julia Doucett ’16.

The team is currently being led by Head Coach Catherine Davie, Novice Coach Stephanie Cox, men’s captain Will Jones ’18 and women’s captain Mozelle Shamash-Rosenthal ’16.

The team looks to gain more recognition from the Brandeis students and administration and increase the size of the team and performance at regattas this year. As seen on the teams website’s description page, the rowing team’s primary goal is to “fos-

SPORTS

ter teamwork, dedication and persistence in a competitive atmosphere geared toward the success of the crew through by improving the strength, endurance, technique, and motivation of the team.”

On Sunday, Sept. 12, the team hosted an alumni regatta event. According to Doucett, the event was a success with excellent weather and everyone in attendance had a fun time. Highlights included a boat christening ceremony in which they announced the name of their new boat to be “The Margo Adler.” Margo Adler is the mother of Alexandra Libstag ’15, the previous women’s captain and an inspiration to the team. Doucett explained that “the name is meant to evoke the incredible strength of our captain and her mother, and remind us what can be accomplished with if you have a strong enough drive.”

One notable team member, the co-president Bess Alshvang ’16 contributes to the team by leading executive board while co-president Alexa Myers ’17 also contributes by keeping the team functional. Also working to help the rowing team this year is Shamash-Rosenthal, who Doucett described as having “done a lot to keep our current team motivated and [helping] out a lot running practice for the novices.”

To generate interest in crew, the team will have a table at the upcoming farmers market in October. There they will be promoting their “Rent-aRower” service, where you can support the team by paying team members to do odd-jobs.

To see the Brandeis rowing team in action, the team competes in 5-kilometer head races in the fall, and 2-kilometer side-by-side sprints in the spring.

The Brandeis Hoot 5

Women’s soccer extends streak

By Sarah Jousset Sports Editor

This past Tuesday, the women’s soccer team faced off against Babson and achieved a 3-0 victory over the Beavers at home on Gordon Field.

The Judges crushed the Beavers, delivering all three of their goals in the span of 6:04, late in the first half of the game.

Babson, who has allowed only two goals in their first eight games of the season, held a strong defense in the opening minutes of the first half before Brandeis opened the flood gates, accumulating three quick goals. The first goal came in the 30th minute when Lea McDaniel ’17 converted a pass from rookie Hannah Maatallah ’19 for her fifth goal of the year.

Just three minutes after the first goal, Melissa Darling ’16 scored her first goal of the season off a pass from McDaniel to make it 2-0 Brandeis.

Maatallah followed close behind the senior with her second goal of the season in the 36th minute to secure the Judges’ 3-0 lead over Babson.

The Judges dominated the Beavers in almost every aspect of the game.

The Judges outshot the Beavers 302, with an advantage of 7-2 in corner kicks. Defensively, while the Babson goalkeeper managed 10 saves throughout the game, the Judges’ goalkeeper Alexis Grossman ’17 had the luxury of a dominating offense.

Grossman did not have to make a save in the shutout to post her fifth clean sheet in a row.

The win brings the women’s soccer team to 8-0-0 this season, a record that matches the second-best start in program history since 2004, behind the 2003 team that opened their season with 9 consecutive wins. The loss for Babson brings their record to 6-21, while snapping their 3-game win

streak. Babson is currently ranked eighth in the latest NSCAA regional poll. The Judges are now 12-1-1 in their last 14 games at home and have allowed only four goals over that span.

In the last two weeks the Judges have gone undefeated going 5-0, with four of their last five games being at home. The Judges’ greatest victory was against Regis College in the rain on Thursday, September 10. The lousy weather favored the Judges as they beat Regis 4-0.

In the Judges’ only away game of their past five, they beat Lesley University 1-0 on Saturday, September 19. The only goal for the Judges that day was delivered by Haliana Burhans ’18, just 34 seconds after subbing into

the game. The goal was delivered in the 25th minute when Burhans received a cross from Julia McDermott ’17 and finished with a shot into the lower left corner of the net for her third goal of the season and first collegiate game-winning goal. The Judges presented another outstanding effort on offense as they managed to control the majority of possession in the first half with an 8-0 advantage in shots and corner kick opportunities.

The Judges delivered 15 shots with six on goal, while holding their opponent to two shots and none on goal.

The Judges, ranked No. 15 in the nation by the NSCAA and No. 18 by D3soccer.com, will be back in action this Saturday at home on Gordon Field at 1 p.m.

photos from internet source

Coven reaches 500th win with victory over Babson

By Zach Cihlar

Special to the Hoot

The men’s soccer reached a landmark win against Babson College on Friday, Sept. 12. The match marked the 500th win for head coach Michael Coven, crowning him as the sixth in NCAA Division III history to reach the milestone.

Coven is currently in his 43rd season with the Judges. He is the second-longest tenured men’s soccer coach in NCAA history behind Tony Tocco of Division II Rockhurst University, who is in his 44th season.

Coven has coached a total of nine teams into the NCAA Division III tournament with a championship title in 1976. The team pushed far into the NCAA tournament last year, advancing to the Elite Eight. In 2012, the Brandeis coach earned the honor of being named the UAA and NCAA Division III coach of the year.

Coven’s overall record after the Babson game boasts 500 wins to 258 losses and 52 tied games. He joins Ron Butcher from Keene State College, who was the first to reach 500 wins in the New England region.

In a heartfelt speech after the Babson game, Coven thanked his players from all 43 years who demonstrated not only skill in the game but character as well. He praised the pride held by all of his current and former players in Brandeis soccer.

The men’s soccer team has historically had a rivalry with the Babson

photo from internet source

Beavers. The game tallied at the 63rd face-off between the two. Babson historically leads the total with 28 wins over the Judges to Brandeis’s 25 wins over the Beavers (ties occurred in ten meetings).

In the Judges’ last meeting with Babson on September 12, Brandeis was ready to secure Coven his 500th win despite the opposing team being more than 30 minutes late. However, the game was intense as a large crowd gathered to watch Coven take his 500th win. The Beaver goalkeeper

made some incredible saves, recording nine saves before the last one found the back of the Babson net. The Judges played tough offense, keeping the game primarily on their opponent’s side of the field. They had 21 shots in total, with 10 on goal, compared to Babson’s 10 shots with only one on goal.

The Judges went scoreless through the entire game with the Beavers. The Judges couldn’t get the best of the Beaver’s goalkeeper in the first overtime period either, as both teams got

two shots off in the extra time.

In a climactic second overtime, the Judges scored the winning goal off a header after delivering the first three shots of the overtime period. A Babson penalty set the Judges up for the opportunity. In the 108th minute of the game, Josh Ocel ’17 lobbed a ball into a cluster of players in front of the goal. Senior captain Jake Picard ’16 found the ball and headed it past the goalie at the goal for a 1-0 victory over Babson.

The Judges also faced off against

Worcester Polytechnic University on Wednesday Sept. 16. The team pulled out the 1-0 win in double overtime.

The goal again came from Picard, with an assist from Christian Hernandez ’18.

The Judges are scheduled to play their next game against Tufts University on Saturday, Sept. 26. Brandeis looks to end Tufts’ undefeated record in the away game. The Judges enters the next game with a 6-1 record. They look to extend their win streak to five games in a row.

6 SPORTS

The Brandeis Hoot

September 25, 2015

Losing streak snapped in weekend tournament

By Curtis Zunyu He Staff

The volleyball team ended a rough three-game road trip and managed to snap their six-game losing streak by beating the Simmons Sharks with a clean sweep, 3-0, on Saturday. However, the Judges weren’t able to hang on to their momentum as they were swept later on in the second half of the tri-match with a 0-3 loss to the Roger Williams Hawks. The weekend’s split brought the Judges to a 3-11 record this season, which may not put the team in a favorable situation with the UAA tournament closing in.

The Judges presented their best in the first game against Simmons with a fantastic showcase of both offense and defense. The team managed a 0.129 kill percentage which is the Judges’ second highest for this season.

In addition, the four blocks from senior middle hitter Maddie Engler ’16 boosted the defensive energy to another level.

“The defense and offense in the first game was great. Brandeis had amazing performances by Maddie Engeler with blocking and Grace Krumpack ’19 with hitting that had a big role in the win,” said setter Allison Harmsworth ’19. As mentioned, Krumpack put up incredible effort as a first-year outside hitter, leading the team with eight kills and 15 digs.

The Judges were able to take control in the first and third set with two 2514 wins, but found themselves in tight competition for most of the second set. The Sharks always managed to pull themselves back into the game by trimming the lead. However, the lack of defense killed the Sharks as they failed to hold the attack from Krumpack in the last few rounds of the set,

photo from internet source

costing them the set by a score of 25-22. The Sharks only managed to pull off two block assists in the whole game. The win was the second for Coach Alesia Vaccari against her former team, Simmons College. Vaccari coached at Simmons College for four years. “We were very excited! It was our coach’s old school so we definitely wanted to get that win for her,” said Harmsworth.

The second game against Roger Williams became the stage for “the freshman squad,” with outstanding performances coming from Krumpack, Harmsworth and Yvette Cho ’19. Krumpack and Harmsworth both achieved career highs with 13

kills and 24 assists respectively in the game against the Roger Williams Hawks. Cho ended up with 10 digs which was the highest on the team on the defensive end. “Cho and Grace have been an amazing addition to the team this year. Cho leads our defense at all times in a great way and is a big part of our success. Grace played phenomenally in the Simmons and Roger Williams games and was a big part of the reason we won that game,” commented Harmsworth.

The first-year players have brought a much-needed spark of energy for the Judges. However, this drive wasn’t enough to close out the game against the more experienced Hawk squad as

the Judges fell short in all three sets with loses of 19-25, 14-25 and 19-25.

“Roger Williams was a really competitive team overall. They just managed to minimize their errors more,” said Harmsworth.

The Judges were at a disadvantage when they committed 28 errors while the Hawks only had 12. The Hawks’ defense was also asphyxiating with 16 blocks which dropped the Judges’ hitting percentage to only 0.011. The Judges only managed four blocks in the game against Roger Williams. The attempt of a winning streak was once again shut down unfortunately for the Judges.

However, Harmsworth remains

positive with the progress the team has been making, “I think we’ve improved a lot because every day we learn more about each other which contributes to the betterment of the team as a whole … We are expecting highly competitive teams that will make us play our best and hopefully get some more wins,” said Harmsworth.

The UAA Round Robin tournament will begin Saturday, Oct. 3 at New York University with Brandeis facing Carnegie Mellon. The Judges look to use their two-week rest to foster a better team dynamic and create chemistry among the Judges, pushing them to more victories.

FEATURES Prof. Fellman recalls campus electricity during Vietnam era

By Mia Edelstein Editor

Professor Gordon Fellman (SOC/ PAX), better known as Gordie, is synonymous with activism on campus.

For decades, he has urged students to take part in protests and campaigns and question normative structures.

A graduate of Antioch College and Harvard University, Fellman joined the Brandeis sociology department in 1964, just as the anti-Vietnam War movement was picking up. Just after signing on to teach at Brandeis, he first encountered Brandeis activism at an anti-Vietnam War march from Cambridge to the Waters on Arsenal.

Seeing some Brandeis faculty marching along, he was impressed and excited to begin his new job. Prior to arriving at Brandeis, Fellman was a participant in the anti-Vietnam War movement but never a leader. He claims that he only began paying full attention to it in 1964 when the movement at Brandeis gained traction.

In 1965, the government began to draft students based on their grade point average. To challenge this and protest the draft, Fellman organized with other faculty members to inflate the grades of male students and keep them at Brandeis. “I was one of the major figures in the evening meetings to protest that,” Fellman explained.

An account of the faculty’s scheme can be found in “Tuesdays with Mor-

rie,” a book that explores the life of Morrie Schwartz, a Brandeis sociology professor, written by Mitch Albom ’79. According to Fellman, at the time, the sociology department’s radicalism was outdone only by the math department’s, as hard as that may be to believe nowadays.

The most iconic moment of the era was the national student strike.

In May of 1970, people descended on New Haven to protest what they thought was going to be the unfair trial of Bobby Seale, a founder of the Black Panther Party. While there, some Brandeis faculty and students called a meeting in the Yale Chapel to discuss a possible strike against the war and other injustices.

“They were flabbergasted that hundreds of people came. Within hours they designed this whole thing,” Fellman said. The group drafted three demands, as documented in the Brandeis archives: that the government must release political prisoners, such as Black Panthers, that the government must immediately end the war in Vietnam and Southeast Asia and that “universities end their complicity with the U.S. war machine” by cutting ties with the ROTC and Department of Defense-related research.

To accomplish these ends, they called for a national student strike, which swept the country within days. Most notably, Brandeis acted as the headquarters.

“When the national strike happened, the faculty had this big meet-

ing and decided to end the semester 10 days early, giving the students the choice to either finish work in courses or be graded on the work they did until then, understanding that a lot of students were going to spend full time organizing against the war,” Fellman explained. He expanded on the energy of the campus during those weeks.

“You would just walk on campus and see people caught up in anti-war work. It was a sense of movement, something big, something important.

In those days, it felt like the university was in the center of things. It wasn’t before, it wasn’t after that.”

During the strike, Fellman helped students with logistics, such as raising money for the enormous phone bill that they ran up as they called schools all over the nation to coordinate efforts, and also held a more activist role. He led teach-ins, which he described as distinct from contemporary ones.

“The original idea of a teach-in was that it would go on for six or eight or 10 hours … They went on for hours and hours and many people spoke. It was a major electric feeling in the air of community and urgency,” he reminisced. As the summer approached, students wanted to remain on campus to further their anti-war efforts, so Fellman acted as their faculty sponsor, pushing aside his initial summer plans and helping petition the administration to keep a residence hall open for the students.

More than 45 years later, Fellman

reflected on this period in his life. “It does remain an extraordinarily exciting time in my life. It was just electric.

There were things going on. People were experimenting with their political activism. It was meaningful, and it helped me see my role at Brandeis as kind of an informal activism counselor over the years. It’s fun. I like that.

Part of what I do with my teaching is urge people to connect what they’re studying with their own lives and society.” He attributes Brandeis’ reputation of social justice to this era, including the student occupation of Ford Hall in 1969 that ultimately es-

photo courtesy gordon fellman/the hoot

tablished the Department of African and Afro-American Studies.

Since the Vietnam War, Fellman has remained active on campus, participating in such movements as university divestment from Apartheid-era South Africa and climate change marches. Despite all of this, activism is far from the golden days of the 1960s and 1970s on campus.

“It’s much tamer now. It’s not that Brandeis has changed so much but that society has changed. There’s nothing major going on in your generation… There’s nothing going on in larger society,” he lamented.

FEATURES Deis3D readies for Printathon, expansion

The Brandeis Hoot 7

September 25, 2015

By Jacob Edelman Editor

Claire Sun ’18, the public relations director for Deis3D, says that while many students on campus may have heard chatter regarding a 3D printathon and printing lab on campus, many have also never been in it or witnessed the fruits of its production.

Founded early in the 2014-15 academic year, the MakerLab, located on the Farber Mezzanine, contains more than 20 3D printers, SLA printers that can solidify resin layers with UV rays, 3D scanners, and even an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

3D printers work by feeding plastic through a tube with a hot extruder end and “printed” on a build bed, layer by layer, until a solid object is formed. The process normally takes a number of hours depending on the size and complexity of the object being printed. The printer receives its instructions from a computer on which someone can create, edit, or download 3D object files.

3D printers and accessories come in many varieties, including printers that use different types of materials such as plastic and rubber, scanning devices that can copy existing objects into printable files, printers the size of pens that can “draw” 3D items, and printers that can create things

that range in size from very small to, theoretically, huge. The possibilities, too, of what one can print with a 3D printer are almost endless—there exist printers that print with metal, frosting, chocolate and ice.

The 3D printing club has about 50 active members and currently is also working on quadcopter projects.

Quadcopters are commonly known as drones and have recently fallen under Federal Aviation Administration scrutiny. “We are working with 3D-printed frames to test aerodynamic capabilities as a fun introduction to this technology. However, drones are under federal regulations,

photo courtesy deis3d/the hoot

so there are limits to where we can fly. At Brandeis, drones can be flown indoors and off campus. They are not allowed to be flown in Brandeis airspace,” Sun said.

Sun explained that the most important event for the club is the aforementioned Printathon, which is a “3D printing and design competition,” the next of which will be Oct. 3 and 4. Over a period of 24 hours, teams will design and print objects surrounding a revealed theme. Last year’s Printathon-winning school was the University of Connecticut, who

designed a prosthetic biker leg.

She attributes the best part of the Printathon to the people involved, saying, “What makes the Printathon such an interesting event are the people you meet. We get people from across the East Coast with a variety of backgrounds and experiences,” continuing, “It’s an event about developing ideas and providing a creative space for them.”

According to Sun, there are misconceptions surrounding 3D printing, explaining how often it is believed that the process will change manufacturing on the large scale.

She does, however, believe that it will have a more significant impact in the prototyping process, stating “3D printing empowers individual creation and experimentation.” She continued, “I met [someone] at Folk Fest last year who created a small business of creating intricate, scientifically accurate keychains. He would design the model electronically and print the model. If he was happy with the design, he then sent it off to be mass manufactured.”

Deis3D has plans for expansion, adding even more printers to its existing 20, and seeks to increase interest

Shira Chadasha provides new Jewish outlet

By Albert Reiss Staff

For most members of Brandeis who identify with the Modern Orthodox movement, standard procedure tells them to go to services at the Orthodox Minyan. However, for those who want another option to fill their needs, the Shira Chadasha group has an answer.

Started in 2002 in Jerusalem, “Shira Chadasha tries to answer the growing need of many religious women and men to readdress the role of women in the synagogue,” according to its website. The group has met opposition, and one anonymous student simply stated about the organization, “I’m very against them.” However, Noam Cohen ’16 notes that Shira Chadasha “strives to empower our entire community, and a big part of that is encouraging women to participate in parts of the service which they might not have had access to before.”

Cohen also noted some of the specific details as to how Shira Chadasha differs from the more traditional Orthodox minyan.“We pray with a mechitzah, and wait for 10 men and women to begin prayer. Men still lead certain portions of the prayer that have stricter halachic obligations, and allow women to lead certain ‘mi sheberach’ prayers.” A student who asked not to be named described Shira Chadasha as “creating more opportunities for women while maintaining an environment of strict adherence and consideration of halacha.”

Being a new organization, arguably a break-away from the traditional Orthodox minyan, does create detractors. Among the worries is that because the Orthodox minyan and Shira Chadasha have similar mem-

jewish women worshipping at the western wall

berships, Shira Chadasha’s success could bring down Orthodox membership levels. It is important to note however that Shira Chadasha presently meets once a month with a significantly lower membership than the Orthodox minyan.

Some of the dissatisfaction with the Orthodox minyan was identified

by Hannah Kober ’16, a former Shira Chadasha coordinator. According to her, the Brandeis Orthodox Organization (BOO) “has seen a rise in more right-leaning approaches to halacha and the role of women in the community, and therefore many BOO

community members who previously were (publicly) content and unquestioning of the gender roles no longer can solely identify with the mainstream pulse of BOO prayer spaces.”

In spite of what many consider Shira Chadasha’s progressive and feminist nature, several students have concerns about the organization.

One student said, “Shira Chadasha is against halacha ... This halachic standard is based on Rabbi Yosef Caro’s Shulchan Arukh, which is the traditional halachic text that Orthodox Jews have followed for centuries.”

Another student went on to say that

photo from internet source

Shira Chadasha’s impetus was for women who “decided that their role in prayer as outlined by sages was not enough for them.” As for what some perceive to be their intentions, yet another student said, “The backers of SC are those that want to manipulate the Torah into promoting their agenda.”

Despite their detractors, those supporters of Shira Chadasha, such as Julia Sirota ’18, see the organization as “filling a void in the existing community without dividing it.” Tova Perlman ’18 also sees the organization as empowering “both men and women to learn more halacha, lead davening

and build spiritual lives.” When asked about how to achieve this, Perlman responded that this could be achieved through “allowing women to lead parts of prayers, singing more prayers out loud, or taking more time to say the Amidah.”

While this issue of what roles women should have in Jewish life and how is not going to be easily solved, for many students like Cohen, Shira Chadasha is simply “an ideal that encompasses both tradition and egalitarianism.”

8 The Brandeis Hoot

WEEK IN PHOTOS

photo by zach gordon/the hoot

university professor celebration

September 25, 2015

photo by adam lamper/the hoot

photo by jacob edelman/the hoot

photo by zach gordon/the hoot

products of the brandeis 3d printing makerlab

photo by jacob edelman/the hoot

photo by adam lamper/the hoot

ARTS, ETC.

September 25, 2015

The Brandeis Hoot 9

Toxic dance crew brings a cultural flare to Brandeis

By Alana Hodson Special to the Hoot

In the overwhelming crowd of the Brandeis club scene, it may seem as though new groups could be lost among the multitude of creative student organizations. However, a new club has taken to the stage this semester, bringing with them a style of dance Brandeis has never seen before.

This new group, Toxic, focuses on a type of dance called majorette, which is popular in the southern states among high schools and universities. Majorette is usually performed at sporting events, such as football games, in companion to the marching band. Toxic provides students with a fun opportunity to experience a style of dance uncommon to the North.

Toxic was founded by five sophomores who shared a passion for majorette dancing: Keturah Walker, Asia Hollinger, Mariah Cohran, Kiaina Gomez and Erika Carter. Walker and Hollinger had shared the dream of creating a majorette dance team at Brandeis long before arriving on campus, already solidifying the idea together as fellow Posse members at their high school in Atlanta, GA. Walker and Hollinger both possess an impressive dance repertoire, encom-

passing many styles from hip hop to ballet, and, of course, majorette.

“Dance is a big part of our lives … and we really wanted to bring some of our culture from the South up to Brandeis,” explained Hollinger. “This is something [different] … unlike other dance styles [like] hip hop and ballet that are renowned. Majorette is only in the U.S., mainly in the South.”

When Walker happened to discover a shared love for majorette dancing with Cohran, Gomez and Carter, their dream of starting a team at Brandeis suddenly began to come to fruition. Even amidst all of their personal obligations over the summer, the five founders still labored over their preparations for the start of the school year.

Toxic welcomed five new members after the conclusion of tryouts two weeks ago, which involved a much more supportive structure than most other dance tryouts on campus. This was partially due to the founders’ encouraging personalities, but mainly because they realized that majorette is a very unfamiliar form of dance for most people. The process included a three-day clinic before the official tryouts in order to get the new students familiar with the feel and techniques of majorette. Synchronization is a vital component to majorette dancing, and in order to achieve perfection

in that area, one must also be able to follow the lead of the dance captain. Therefore, acting as the dance captain, as well as a following group dancer, was another unique part of the Toxic tryouts.

Since Toxic is a new and unknown club on campus, they hope to eventually increase their membership from 10 to 17 in order to participate in competitions with other colleges and universities. They are working to incorporate more diversity into their team as they grow, because they want to want to teach people about this aspect of Southern black culture and strive to break the idea that only black females can be a part of a majorette dance group. “At the activities fair, we were really rooting for people from a bunch of different races to come in because the whole point of bringing it to Brandeis was to expose culture,” said Hollinger, “Don’t assume that we are this segregated club … we’re so inclusive. We want anybody to come.”

Toxic is affiliated with the BBSO (Brandeis Black Student Organization) because the main goal of Toxic is that others will be able to learn about this unique aspect of black culture, an idea about which Walker and Hollinger are very passionate. “We need to teach people about our culture. We’re open to learn about ev-

erybody else’s culture, and Brandeis is always talking about inclusiveness and diversity … but when we have things about black culture, it’s not really out there as much,” Walker explained. She and Hollinger said that it is also important to the members of Toxic to find a way to give back to the community, such as through fundraisers, providing mentor services, or going to high schools to start up younger Toxic teams.

Toxic is currently hard at work practicing and polishing their routine for

their first performance this tonight, Sept. 25 at Chum’s, at a kick-off event for a magazine called “Ebony Axis” created by LaShawn Simmons ’18, which features narratives by people of color. Since Brandeis does not have a football team, Toxic hopes to perform at basketball games instead. Because this form of dance is meant to compliment and be performed in tandem with a marching band, Walker and Hollinger are also in the process of starting a marching band here at Brandeis.

photo from internet source

Musicians step into the lamplight

By Zachary Gordon Staff

Every Brandeis student recognizes “The Light of Reason” sculpture. It serves as a landmark on campus, and the gathering place for our first welcome as Brandeisians, but after that it often gets overlooked by much of the student body. Fritz Oleshansky ’16, coordinator of SCRAM (the Student Committee for the Rose Art Museum), hopes to change that.

On Sunday, Sept. 20 SCRAM, in partnership with WBRS, Brandeis TV and Student Production Services put on the second show in their “Lamplight Sessions” concert series.

The (tentatively) bi-monthly series of shows will double as a music video series on Youtube, made possible by the collaboration with BTV and WBRS. In an exclusive interview with The Brandeis Hoot, Oleshansky said that he hopes the concert series will get

students more comfortable with the space, and make it “a more social space” and “a more relevant gathering place for Brandeis students.” According to Oleshansky, despite the “beautiful atmosphere … students are a little intimidated or a little reluctant to go and hang” at “The Light of Reason.” The obvious solution for Oleshansky was to put on a concert.

During Fall Fest, SCRAM hosts the “SCRAM Jam,” an annual party featuring live music at the Rose.

photo by

Zachary Gordon/the hoot

The “Lamplight Sessions” will be yet another music-centered addition to the SCRAM events calendar. Even though live music is nothing new to SCRAM, the “Lamplight Sessions” definitely bring something new to the table.

The collaborative nature of the concert series is what makes it stand out from other SCRAM events. Oleshansky calls the “Lamplight Sessions” “an exciting project that bring all these different clubs together” to put on a show.

With BTV and WBRS working on the digital production side of things, SPS handles the live sound, and according to Fritz, “does a huge part in making the live shows run smoothly.” And besides an unexpected bit of cold, the show on Sunday could not have run smoother.

It’s easy to see why Oleshansky picked “The Light of Reason” as the location for this project. The concert began just as the sun was setting, and the sunlight gave way to the glow of the lamplights, which enveloped the entire scene with an atmospheric charm. The defining quality of the event was the intimate feel the space provided, and there is definitely something unique about the way the scenery captured the performance.

Sunday’s lineup kicked off with Brandeis students Remy Pontes ’17 and Makalani Mack ’16, who played an interesting combination of original songs and covers. This was Remy’s debut performance at Brandeis, and, according to him, the first time he had played in front of an audience. A talented guitarist and singer, Pontes’ sound mixed effortlessly with Mack’s and their combined harmonies were gorgeous. They finished their performance with a cover of Post Malone’s “White Iverson,” during which the crowd joined in singing, and the performers’ friends in the audience held up signs with their names to show their support.

The headliners of the evening were Scott James and Anna Beckerman, both student artists from New York University. James is quickly becoming a well-known player and performer, and has the chops to show for it. His style is superbly reminiscent of Jeff Buckley, employing similar high vibrato vocals and deftly finger-picked guitar. It is no surprise that on his artist page he lists Buckley as one of his influences. The sound was completed by Beckerman’s high harmonies which fit perfectly with James’ voice and style. The pair played several tracks from James’s E.P. “Destinesia,” a number of covers, and his new single, “River.”

Oleshansky hopes to bring in artists like James with an established following so the project can “start accruing some momentum.” He also wants to continue featuring Brandeis musicians like Pontes and Mack, to give musicians on campus a forum to express their art. He notes that there are so many musical artists at Brandeis who have no outlet to perform, and since he extended the invitation to Brandeisian players, he has been overwhelmed with the response of students who want to be a part of the project. “That’s one of the things we’re so excited about,” he says, “bringing students into the lamplight.”

Oleshansky has high hopes for the concert series, saying that the “Lamplight Sessions” have “the potential to become something kids know Brandeis by.” His ideal is for it to become a staple of the community and improve Brandeis as a whole, even attracting more types of students to the school. Oleshansky is motivated and excited to continue bringing the “Lamplight Sessions” to audiences at “The Light of Reason” and he felt his enthusiasm reciprocated in the audience, saying, “I think that people at the show, got an idea of what this can become.”

10 ARTS

The Brandeis Hoot

September 25, 2015

‘When Voices Meet’ touches upon strong themes

ByAmanda Ehrmann Special to the Hoot

My mom is from South Africa and grew up during Apartheid. I’ve always asked her for personal stories about her experiences, but for some reason, she didn’t have many. So when I saw “When Voices Meet” as part of the Chicago International Social Change Film Festival, it proved educational, inspiring and deeply moving. Perhaps it was because of my lack of knowledge about the era, but the general audience all seemed to have the same reaction. The film was followed by a performance, and the audience was encouraged to join in the festive and addictive nature of the songs. Maybe in writing, “When Voices Meet” was just a featured film in a festival, but for all the viewers, it was much more.

“When Voice’s Meet” follows the journey of The Peace Train. When Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison, 15-year-old Sharon Katz decided it was also her job to do what she could to combat Apartheid. And what she could do was music. Katz traveled to schools in the Black, Indian, Colored and White areas of South Africa to teach her music to schoolchildren. Then, in 1992, Katz and co-founder of The Peace Train, Nonhlanhla Wanda, gathered all 500 children together for a concert. The project soon developed into The Peace Train, which toured South Africa on a train, bringing the diverse choir to many cities, and eventually to America.

The film had plenty of material. Katz was filmed venturing to segregated areas and interacting with children of all races. The documentary switched between footage of the violence in South Africa, violence between black communities and the police, inter-

By Clayre Benzadon Staff

If you plan to study abroad at any time during your Brandeis career, don’t miss the opportunity to look into a study abroad program that focuses on the arts in the small, intimate Italian city of Siena, a drawing, arts and society Siena Art Institue.

The program is a two-course, fiveweek intensive, experiential learning summer program. What better way to study art history, especially the Renaissance, than in Italy?

The classes consist of a studio art course and an art history course, taught by Prof. Joseph Wardwell (FA) and by the Siena Art Institute. The classes are aimed at creating an environment to find a source of self-expression, mastery in the arts and extensive learning of art history. The program also involves a combination of studio experience, classroom coursework and field trips to historic cultural sites in Tuscany through field trips to historical places and through Italian masterworks in the classroom, visit the practice traditional techniques in the studio.

The art history class focuses on art from the 13th through the 16th centuries, concentrating on Renaissance, as the Renaissance became the turning point and Golden Age of art, especially in Italy. Painters studied include Giotto, Simone Martini, Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Donatello,

views of Katz, other important people in the development of the choir, and past choir participants. When talking to the participants, a lightened circle appeared around the participant in the recorded footage. This allowed for direct comparison. Choir participants explained how wonderful the opportunity was and how it not only introduced them to children they may not have met otherwise, but also helped build self-confidence.

As I watched, it struck me that my mom only ever mentioned the Apartheid in passing. She talked about how she used to give food to the poor black children, but that was the extent of her stories. She lived a sheltered life, where she was aware, but never exposed to the terrors the black community faced. The film reiterated how many of the Indian and Colored areas were unaware of the full extent of the situation.

When I asked Katz about the extent of the violence, she explained that often the white government would try to defend their actions by labeling the black communities as violent. However, it was actually the police who would paint their faces black, and go to the black territories just to start violence. The police would present this as evidence. It was the sick, twisted nature of the government that kept the truth hidden, and Katz made it her mission to combat this by revealing the true, good nature of the people.

In an interview with Katz, I asked her if, being a social rights activist changed her opinion about everyday situations. I asked her if living through Apartheid, did she recognize an apartheid state in other conflicts, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

She responded, “It’s hard for me, being a Jew, but I believe when anyone’s rights are being taken away, that’s all wrong. All rights need to be respected.

Palestine has been an occupied nation

photo from internet source

for some time. And it’s hard because the Jews need a state too. They definitely need a peace train there. But it’s hard to compare the situations.

I wouldn’t only talk about Israel and Palestine, there’s also the situations in

Syria, Congo and Darfur.”

Katz’s personality reflected exactly what the participants’ interviews explained in the film. She was open, interested, aware and an all-around good soul. Her work was successful

Art students given on-canvas experience in Siena, Italy

Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.

Students have the privilege of understanding the culture and time period as well as get a closer look at paintings to understand every contour and shade involved in not only the paintings, but also the hidden history behind the artists’ lives and artwork.

Giotto was one of the most important artists who actually lived in Tuscany throughout his childhood. His new style created a model whereby many other Renaissance artists mimicked his work and techniques. The

“Ognissanti Madonna,” for example, one of his most well known works, starts to define the Renaissance period’s themes of work: religious pieces with Madonna holding her child and angels surround her, at the bottom of her throne. The angles still wear the haloes around their head, a traditional stylistic element that was prominent in the Byzantine period.

Another important painting that is an example of Tuscany’s first painting on canvas in “The Birth of Venus,” by Sandro Botticelli. In this painting, this is also the first time that we see a depiction of a woman’s naked, sensual

body. The Renaissance was a revolutionary time to break boundaries, and in this painting viewers definitely get to see that. The Greek mythology and allegorical references in this painting also point to the Renaissance tradition of adding religious and symbolism in these pieces.

Another significant aspect of this piece is that there is more color in this painting than there was before any other artworks before, as Byzantine artwork used mostly dark, neutral colors and now, the piece contains a multitude of blues, light greens, lush pink and tan shades.

in maintaining Nelson Mandela’s vision of a new South Africa and had an everlasting impact on those who participated, and viewers, like me, who had the privilege of seeing the journey through film.

This study abroad program is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a unique experience where students will have the opportunity to be surrounded by Italian culture and art, hopefully inspiring them to create their own pieces of art.

Art history is an important foundation for understanding why paintings were created in the first place and the symbolism involved in the pieces helps to create a dialogue and debate among students, scholars and art historians to create new meanings and innovations to fit the narrative of our time.

photo from internet source

September 25, 2015

ARTS 11

The Brandeis Hoot

Prof. Troyanovsky ’98 takes distinct approach to renowned play

By Santiago Montoya Special to the Hoot

Dmitry Troyanovsky ’98, an assistant professor in the Department of Theater Arts, spent his summer far from Brandeis, all the way in China.

He directed playwright Sarah Kane’s most recent and final work, “4.48 Psychosis,” at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre in. Troyanovsky said this was not the first time he has worked in China.

“I’ve been collaborating with Chinese artists and theater educators since 2011… People from the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre were aware of my work, so they invited me to do something,” Troyanovsky said.

“4.48 Psychosis” is mostly known for being the last play Kane wrote before she committed suicide. After the play was performed for the first time in 2000, a year after Kane’s death, it drew polarizing reviews. The drama critic, Michael Billington, described the play as the, “75-minute suicide note.”

However, this is not the approach Troyanovsky took when it came to stage his own production of the play. When asked about whether he thought the audience still enters into the theater with the same perception that the play is all Kane herself, he said, “I think it actually robbed the play of its theatrical core because if you treat the play as her biographic text you are forgetting that Sarah Kane didn’t write plays about herself, she put herself into her plays, but that’s different … I think we open up the possibilities of the play when we stop treating it as only a suicide note.”

He added that the main character of the play “is another character who

may be inspired by Sarah Kane, who may be similar to Sarah Kane, but it is another character.”

Throughout the years “4.48 Psychosis” has also allowed creative freedom, and as result, a vast breadth of interpretations of the play have been produced. The play’s freedom is actually one of the reasons why Troyanovsky jumped on the opportunity. “I wanted that challenge and that freedom,” Troyanovsky said. The distinct approaches to the play has

mostly to do with the fact that “4.48 Psychosis” does not have a specific setting, or characters, nor does it have stage directions. According to Troyanovsky, his production differs from previous stagings because, “I was more interested in the aspect of psychosis—after all, the play is not called, ‘4.48 Depression,’ it is called, ‘4.48 Psychosis,’ so I was interested in a mind crisis.”

The way Troyanovsky and his collaborators put together the produc-

tion departs from the ambiguity for which the play has come to be known as. It was also a nuanced and distinctive production from the “4.48 Psychosis” that was staged seven years ago at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, which revolved around depression instead of complete mental breakdown.

One of the main aspects that makes production to production different is the setting. “I also noticed that when I was doing my research, productions of the play tend to fall into two cate-

photo from internet source

gories, either a very specific, realistic kind of setting, [such as], hospital room, or psychiatrist’s office, or a totally abstract space—an empty space with a chair,” Troyanovsky said. He stated that he wanted to do a combination of both, but at the same time, “something that would be grounded in reality.”

Together with his designer Zane Philstrom, he tried to construct a setting that would be less abstract space and more realistic. Troyanovsky described the setting as “a jumble of memories. It is a house, it is a motel room, it is a hospital, it is a transitory space, it is hard to say exactly what it is, but it evokes powerful memories and feelings, and to me it seems like shards of a mind that is falling apart.”

Music was another key aspect for the production Troyanovsky had in mind. Although he had an idea of where he wanted to go with the music selection, during the rehearsal period it was completely improvised. The music served to amplify each movement and was always performed live.

It rested upon the shoulders of two women, one in charge of playing the accordion and the other the double bass.

The choice of populating the seldom solo performed play interested Troyanovsky more. “I chose to do it with four actors and two musicians. I had two women and two men. I was interested in the idea of doubles and symmetry.” The language was a barrier, the actors spoke little English and the director little Chinese,“but it doesn’t make it impossible,” he said and added, “I think, eventually, my actors and I were really communicating through every means that theater offers to us.”

When asked what the play’s title meant to him, Troyanovsky responded, “Is ‘4.48’ the moment of psychosis, or is it the moment of ultimate clarity?”

Lady Gaga’s new single confronts sexual assault ByAdam Lamper

Special to the Hoot

Though she’s no stranger to addressing social issues in her music, Lady Gaga’s newest single stands out against the flamboyance and shock value of her top hits. “Til It Happens to You,” the title of the singer’s 28th single, was released with an accompanying music video Friday, Sept. 18, bringing public attention to a topic all too familiar to the artist.

Co-written by Gaga and Grammy Award-winning songwriter, Diane Warren, “Til It Happens To You” was composed specifically for the 2015 film, “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about the prevalence of rape and sexual assault on campuses across the United States. Academy Award-nominated director Kirby Dick wanted an artist with major influence in order to bring the importance of the documentary’s message to the public eye, and Gaga, a survivor of sexual assault herself, was eager to fill the role. An earlier version of the song was leaked in February after the film’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. However, it was decided in August that the full-quality track would be released as a public service announcement in order to raise awareness of the pervasive presence of rape culture at American universities.

The song features lyrics that inspire the listener to question the validity nonsurvivors’ empathy, though they are vague enough to be applicable to any circumstance of loss or hardship.

In the chorus of the song, Gaga sings,

“Til it happens to you, you don’t know how it feels … Til it happens to you, you won’t know, it won’t be real.”

The somber nature of these words is a stark contrast to the traditionally upbeat and anthemic nature of her music, potentially signifying the hardships she has faced on her path toward female sexual empowerment.

Musically, the song’s style varies drastically from the majority of the pop star’s discography, though hardcore fans can draw connections to the intensity of her other pop-ballad, “Speechless,” off her album “The Fame Monster,” and to the raw emo-

tion found in “Dope” of “ARTPOP.” The instrumentation of the song initially consists of a string section and piano before introducing percussive rock rhythms toward the song’s climax, signifying the feelings of both despair and rage that she respectively faced on her path to recovery.

Gaga’s raw, dark and raspy lower register dominate the song, which is characteristic of the songs concerning her emotional vulnerability. As the music takes on a rougher tone during the song’s bridge, there is an evident increase in Gaga’s overall emotional intensity as she shifts into her upper

register, still maintaining her signature full-bodied voice, and states, “Til you’re standing in my shoes, I don’t want to hear a thing from you,” solidifying her view on the unsubstantiated empathy that accompanies American rape culture. Likewise, the increase in the strength of her voice at the song’s climax signifies her overcoming the psychological and emotional toll of being a survivor of rape.

The music video released along with the song opens, “The following contains graphic content that may be emotionally unsettling but reflects the reality of what is happening daily on

photo from internet source

college campuses,” and truly unsettling it is. Almost immediately, the video depicts the rape of four different college students, exploring themes of drug lacing and alcohol consumption as it relates to non-consensual intercourse. However, the most evocative scene involves the assault of a femaleto-male transgender student within the confines of a male restroom. The variation of scenarios is primarily used to enforce the idea that sexual assault can happen to anyone, regardless of the victim’s habits or circumstances.

The video ends with a call to action, reiterating the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses, and urging viewers to join the “It’s On Us” movement by taking the online pledge to end sexual assault. Reminiscent of Gaga’s charity involvement with the “Born This Way Foundation,” a portion of the song’s proceeds will be donated to organizations aimed at helping survivors of sexual assault.

Though lacking the intense enthusiasm that her “Little Monsters” just can’t get enough of, “Til It Happens to You” reminds listeners that Gaga’s musicianship is truly as multifaceted as her stage persona. After the song’s release, Gaga took to Twitter and wrote, “Dianne Warren and I made ‘Til It Happens to You’ for people all over the world who suffer from painful life experiences ... We hope you feel our love and solidarity through the song, and perhaps find some peace in knowing that you are not alone,” showing an altruistic reason for the creation of music, an aspect almost obsolete in the highly competitive world of contemporary songwriting.

EDITORIALS

12 The Brandeis Hoot

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Editors-in-Chief Andrew Elmers Theresa Gaffney Senior Managing Editor Jess Linde Senior Copy Editors Mia Edelstein Julie Landy News Editors Charlotte Aaron Hannah Schuster Arts Editor Sabrina Pond Deputy Opinions Editor Zach Phil Schwartz Features Editor Jacob Edelman Sports Editor Sarah Jousset Hoot Scoops Editor Emily Sorkin Smith

O

Admin. should be more transparent in presidential search

n Aug. 20, Chair of the Brandeis Presidential Search Committee Larry Kanarek sent an email to the Brandeis community with an update on the committee’s progress. However, the update was more self-congratulatory than informational. According to Kanarek, the committee was “moving ahead on the timetable [they] set for [them] selves” and getting along with each other. The only update to do with the search was that they had started searching through “a large number of candidates.”

Over a month later, there have been no further updates from the Search Committee. This lack of information is frustrating and unfair to the Brandeis student body, and an easily fixable act on the part of the committee. Time and time again, Brandeis students have asked the administration to build a foundation of trust and transparency, and the administration has sometimes responded, but more often has not.

Copy Editor Allison Plotnik

Volume 12 • Issue 15 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

Founded By Leslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

STAFF

Clayre Benzadon, Rachel Bossuk, Sharon Cai, Karen Caldwell, Jake Greenberg, Talia Franks, Zachary Gordon, Emma Gutman, Emma Hanselman, Curtis Zunyu He, Emma Kahn, Naomi Klickstein, Shayna Korol, Nabi Menai, Monique J Menezes, Joon Park, Emily Scharf, Marian Siljeholm, Eliana Sinoff, Hannah Stewart, Michael Wang, Sophia Warren, Katarina Weessies

MISSION As the weekly community student newspaper of Brandeis University, The Brandeis Hoot aims to provide our readers with a reliable, accurate and unbiased source of news and information.

Produced entirely by students, The Hoot serves a readership of 6,000 with in-depth news, relevant commentary, sports and coverage of cultural events. Recognizing that better journalism leads to better policy, The Brandeis Hoot is dedicated to the principles of investigative reporting and news analysis. Our mission is to give every community member a voice.

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The presidential search is an important issue for the student body. As many criticisms circulated last year about former President Frederick M. Lawrence, it should be clear to administrators that students actually care about who will follow Interim President Lisa M. Lynch. The Brandeis Hoot believes that the Search Committee should be more open about the process and communicate more with the student body on the progression of the process.

The Search Committee does include a student representative: Sneha Walia ’15. Walia was president of the Student Union last year and is currently a candidate for the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program. However, not including any undergraduates in the presidential search only contributes to the lack of transparency and trust.

As students who care about Brandeis and have a stake in its future, it is unfair to ask us to be complacent in our complete ignorance of

the process.

At a town hall several weeks ago, Interim President Lynch stated multiple times she would not be considered for the position of president, assuring the audience that someone suitable would be chosen eventually. Again, this props up the idea that the student body does not need to be a part of the process. Even if that were completely true, to leave students in the complete dark only serves to reinforce ideas that the administration does not care about student voices. This belief has been vindicated in the past by obstructions to student sexual assault activism and the hiding of the university’s deferred compensation of former President Jehuda Reinharz. In countless editorials, The Hoot has called on the administration to meet students halfway on the issue of transparency.

Once again, our arms are outstretched and await a friendly hand. Hopefully, the hand will come soon.

Crossword

Senior Layout Editor Sasha Ruiz Layout Editors Lisa Petrie Ludi Yang

September 25, 2015

By Naomi Klickstein staff

Across 1. French treat 5. “What else?”

8. Black 13. Mexican munchie 14. Hurt 15. Soothing plant 16. –C-O-C18. Environment’s defender 19. Stalks 20. “No touchy” 23. Place of relaxation 24. Ending to “microc” 25. Place to take your car 28. Pirate’s favorite letter?

30. Exhausted 32. Psychic 33. New York canal 36. Gaelic name meaning “she who intoxicates” 37. Thursday, at times 39. Fasts 40. A twist of lime 41. Abbreviations seen at the airport 42. Lauded 44. Aussie runner 46. Club ____ 47. Polymerase well known by BIOL 18 students 48. Famous boxer 51. Painted performance 55. Alternative to pathos and logos 58. ____ mode 59. Suggest 61. Like a lemon 62. Start of a Goodyear’s monologue?

63. “Woe ______”

64. Big Papi recently hit his 500th 65. Ingest 66. Seal, like a deal Down 1. Phrases heard at dinner (abr.)

2. Former CBS news anchor Dan 3. Reverberation

4. Frost’s works 5. “I agree” 6. Back of the neck 7. e.g. Smaug 9. UK city 10. Bullfight yell 11. French name 12. Verbal nod 17. Political fig.

19. Uncle who wants YOU 21. Demolished (var.)

22. Ending to class or Marx 25. Sewing implement 26. Sandal brand 27. Donkey sound (var.)

29. Look over again 31. Be 32. Prefix with “tize” or “torium” 34. “Darn!”

35. ___ and outs 36. Word on sailor’s bicep 37. The bark may be worse 38. Award 39. Pol. party 42. Tab oft seen on websites 43. To treat as equivalent 47. ____ the season 49. Cat’s seat, often 50. “For Whom Do ______” Judah Leib Gordon biography 51. Old tales 52. Pelvic bones 53. Pub projectile 54. Gas company 55. Somerville circus studio 56. Also 57. Wordlessly sing 60. Golfer’s post

OPINIONS

September 25, 2015

The Brandeis Hoot 13

Campus buildings unable to ‘Turn it off ’

By Andrew Elmers Editor

After some record-breaking high temperature days so far this month, I’ve realized how important air conditioning is. Or at least how convenient it is. It is certainly refreshing to be able to walk into the library or Usdan and be able to cool off from temperatures reaching the mid-90s. Not everyone has the luxury of having air conditioning in their rooms, so these common areas that are kept at a nice 72 degrees are mostly great.

However, the issue on campus is that these buildings simply can become too cold. The air conditioning is on too often and creates a need to wear a sweatshirt if you’re stuck in the library for a few hours doing homework. While I admit I’m very susceptible to feeling cold, that doesn’t dismiss the fact that the air conditioning is on in these buildings for a majority of the day. This problem is not only about comfort, however.

Vice President of Operations Jim Gray emailed students this past week with results from the university’s “Turn it Off ” campaign over the summer. Asking students, faculty and staff to turn off unnecessary lights

and machines during the day, unplug devices that have finished charging and be tolerant of higher building temperatures during the afternoon, the university saved electricity and lowered its carbon footprint by 25 percent on July 29. Additional “Turn it Off ” days were held on July 20, July 30, Aug. 17, Aug. 18 and Sept. 8, which all featured very high temperatures and levels of humidity.

Gray acknowledged at the end of his email that saving energy is not only important on peak demand days, yet the level to which the air conditioning is programmed to in some buildings say otherwise. It’s common sense to realize that if the thermostats were raised to a more temperate number, the university would save thousands in energy costs and further lower its carbon footprint. Yet during the first few weeks of the fall semester, and I’m sure over the summer as well, the air conditioning in these buildings are set to borderline uncomfortable temperatures.

The university should not be advising people to save energy on only certain days, but instead every day.

There is absolutely no need to keep the air conditioning running all day when the high temperature is in the 80s; students can survive through a humid afternoon. The air condition-

photo from internet source

ing would not be turned off for the entirety of the day, it would simply be adjusted to not run as often and not keep the building temperature so low.

Yet energy sustainability does not end with air conditioning. The days where it is hot enough to warrant the use of AC in Massachusetts are not that common, especially during the academic year, while days that are cold enough that heating units need

to be on are frequent. The opposite is true of building temperatures during the winter, they are too hot. In order to keep these large buildings warm, the heating systems are constantly on.

The upper levels are then inundated with hot, dry air, since warm air rises.

The majority of buildings on campus have been retrofitted to keep up with current standards of insulation and heat loss. However, the heating

systems are still boiling up a large amount of steam, enough to make common areas like the library and academic buildings just as uncomfortable as they are during the summer.

By the time winter rolls around and the heating vents kick on, hopefully the “Turn It Off ” days continue and the school truly commits to its sustainability initiative.

The beginning of Israel’s civil rights movement

By Rida Abu Rass Special to the Hoot

For decades, Palestinian participation in Israeli politics has been dominated by one major issue—ending the Israeli occupation and creating a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza strip. For Palestinians in Israel and for those in the occupied territories, the struggle was one and the same, focusing on ending Israel’s occupation and calling for Palestinian self-determination in the occupied territories. Israel’s systematic expropriation of lands from its own Palestinian citizens, its allocation of resources away from Palestinian towns and schools in Israel and its segregation of Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel have traditionally been seen

by Palestinian citizens of Israel as part of the larger struggle for Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

According to a new poll from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, most Palestinians in the occupied territories now oppose the two-state solution. At the same time, Palestinians in Israel also seem to be changing the way they speak about their struggle. Ayman Odeh, the current chairman of Israel’s only bi-national party, Hadash, and the leader of the Joint List (a coalition of Palestinian parties, plus Hadash), exemplifies this recent shift for Palestinians in Israel. A new, unfamiliar face in Israeli Politics, Odeh seems to talk less about Israel’s occupation and more about equal civil rights, for every person living between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

Odeh did not forget about the occupation. He’s quite vocal about it. He does, however, embody a real change in the way Palestinian citizens of Israel think about their struggle in general. In his first speech on the Knesset’s podium, Odeh opens by presenting his vision for 2025: Palestinian towns no longer neglected, Palestinian workers fully and equally integrated into the market and open borders be-

tween the state of Israel and the state of Palestine.

But for Odeh, and for many of his voters, the occupation is not the root cause of Palestinians’ disenfranchisement—it is a symptom of a larger problem. Odeh does not talk much about the Palestinian state after those opening remarks in his vision for the best possible future. Instead, he warned the Israeli political establishment of the dangers of its continued systematic segregation of Palestinians in general, both in Israel and in the occupied territories. This, I believe, is indicative of nothing less than a paradigm shift which will radically transform the way we talk about Israel and Palestine.

The shift is rooted in frustrations with the existing Palestinian parties in Israel, and their members’ rhetoric.

What did their focus on Palestinian statehood achieve? Based on recent estimates, there are around 400,000 settlers in the West Bank today, excluding East Jerusalem, and around 300,000 in East Jerusalem alone. Benjamin Netanyahu is serving his fourth

term as Israel’s prime minister. Negotiations between the PLO and Israel stopped, with no prospect of continuing any time soon. Racist discourse in Israel is stronger than it ever was.

Gaza is entering its ninth year under Israel’s blockade—a blockade that serves no practical purpose and, in fact, only fuels Hamas’ control over the Strip. Granted, the Palestinian parties in Israel are certainly not to blame for these, but at the same time, their mantra, “statehood first,” did not bear any fruit.

Palestinians in Israel—and leftist Jewish-Israelis, for that matter—lost all hope in the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Is it even possible? There are too many settlements throughout the West Bank for the creation of a new state that has any kind of territorial continuity.

Relocating tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Israeli settlers (many of whom were born in the settlements and never chose to move there), is not only highly impractical, it is immoral.

The majority of Israelis are no longer interested in creating a Palestinian

state at the cost of dividing Jerusalem or relocating settlers. Besides, Palestinian citizens of Israel, who have traditionally been the most vocal advocates for a Palestinian state in the Knesset, are now asking themselves: What could a Palestinian state do for me, anyway?

Palestinians today, both in Israel and in the occupied territories, realize that they must change their strategies, and that their priorities must shift.

Why should the call for Palestinian self-determination in the West Bank and Gaza be their top priority? If a Palestinian state is established, then what? Would the systemic and social discrimination against Israel’s Palestinian minority be brought to an end?

It might, in the long run, but Palestinians everywhere want to be represented, heard and treated as equal citizens before the law, now.

For Palestinians, Israel is not a democracy. Fair elections are not the only condition for democracy. A true democracy protects the human rights of all citizens, applies the rule of law equally, and allocates funds propor-

tionally and fairly. A true democracy actively promotes and celebrates plurality. Israel cannot call itself a democracy and also uproot 70,000 of its own Palestinian Bedouin citizens from their homes, it can not call itself a democracy while sewage runs in the streets of virtually all Palestinian cities and towns, and it certainly can not call itself a true democracy while its democratically elected prime minister warns his constituents of the Arab threat, “coming in droves” to fulfill their legitimate right to vote on elections day.

There are around six million Palestinians and six million Jews living in Israel/Palestine today. In the 21st century, Israel—a Western country, an Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) member, a technological powerhouse, an American ally—cannot afford to continue discriminating against 20 percent of its own citizens systematically, and it certainly can not continue the total disenfranchisement of 4.5 million Palestinians under its control. Palestinians today realize that the two-state solution is no longer holy. We know that the real problem is not the absence of Palestinian self-determination, but the presence of inequality between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.

For me Ayman Odeh represents those Palestinians in Israel and in the occupied territories who are slowly realizing that the call for self-determination should be secondary. Our call, today, is for civil rights. Odeh represents those that realize the occupation can only be ended after Israel’s systematic segregation and discrimination against all Palestinians ends. Odeh represents those who now realize, perhaps too late, that the Oslo Accords and the creation of the Palestinian National Authority did nothing for Palestinians. Fair negotiations can only take place between equals. Odeh represents those who are slowly beginning to realize that the Palestinian issue is a civil rights issue, those who realize that we must demand full, equal rights, first.

14 OPINIONS

The Brandeis Hoot

September 25, 2015

Univ. must follow through on sustainability summer. It was attached to Usdan by a hose. The sprinkler rotated back and forth, creating a wall of water over a tiny corner of grass bordered on both sides by sidewalk.

It went to the right, contributing to the mud puddle that has overtaken I’m a Texan, born and raised. what was grass. I navigated around Where I come from, drought is the the puddle and jumped over the rivnorm, and rain makes the front page. er of wasted water. Over the sumI have become familiar with the varimer, I had received email after email ous colors of the Texas drought map, from Brandeis telling me about their watching the deep red of “exceptional “Turn It Off ” initiative to help the endrought” creep into my neck of the vironment and save costs. I thought, woods and then turn the light yellow I hoped, that Brandeis saw itself as a of “abnormally dry” when it finally green campus, but gallons of water rains. Everyone in my city keeps the now disagree. Gallons of water from a water level of our lakes in the back of broken sprinkler shot 10 feet into the their mind. Our natural cycle is flood, air two nights ago. Gallons of water I then extended drought, then flood watched the watering system deliver again, then extended drought, with to the grass while it was raining. rare 15-minute showers in between.

Brandeis, when it comes to protectAll of this is to say that I have been ing the environment, you need work. raised my whole life to be sensitive It’s all well and good to send emails to water usage, and I always assumed encouraging people to turn off their that other people were the same.

Fast-forward to my 10th grade con- spraying the sidewalks clean. Rivulets with their water is different from my hop music. I thought that Brandeis fans on the hottest days of the year, firmation trip to New York City. My of liquid ran into the street and down own. had surprised me in as many ways as even if that initiative has more to do tour group was walking along the side- a drain. My jaw dropped, my heart Welcome to Brandeis. I’ve been it could when it shocked me one more with the cost of electricity than helpwalk from a pizza joint to a synagogue raced, I could hardly breathe. Don’t here for a month now. I’ve survived time. I was walking from Usdan to my ing the earth, but when comes to wawhen it happened. I smelled water. I they know how precious clean water the “first-year rumble” and getting room, and I saw something I hadn’t ter conservation, you are wasting waheard water. I looked ahead, and there is? This was my first indication that my gavel going. My ears have been seen in years: It was a rainmaker, the ter beyond belief. Perhaps you should was a man with a high-powered hose, the relationship Northeasterners have assaulted by exceptionally loud hip kind that kids run through during the hire a Texan.

By Alex Friedman Special to the Hoot

By Monique J Menezes

The college campus: a public health perspective

Staff

Health: Science Society and Policy (HSSP) is a popular major at Brandeis, but even those students who study health lose sight of their own well-being. Late teens and early twenty-somethings are usually the image of health: youthful and in their prime of life. So if people like you and me are the pictures of this fiercely pursued state, I have one question: What is health? If our age defines our health, then it is defined as a lack of wrinkles and gray hair. Any HSSP major can tell you that this isn’t the case. More strictly, health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being, not just an absence of illness or old age.

The idea that college students are the depiction of health is actually a little befuddling because despite postgraduate fears, a college campus can be one of the most stressful manic-producing and neurotic-filled environments. Actually, according to an Associated Press Mental Health Poll from 2009, 80% of students report experiencing stress on a daily basis.

Consider the obvious, academic stress a little more deeply. It entails more than just a looming exam or paper deadline. Students, sitting together in lecture halls, tend to be competitors and, unknowingly, inciters of an overwhelming stress. It’s a collegiate norm to pursue achievement and therefore create a culture of expectation among peers as a by-product.

Unfortunately, that pressure to excel is not limited to the campus. The source of stress can originate with parents or family and friends from back home.

More importantly, the worst and most common stem of pressure comes from an internal place, in each of us.

Anxiety should be an indicator of how important the pursuit of success is to us, but the desire to do well leads to stress other than that of academic origin. College students pursue internships, extracurriculars and a host of other time-consuming activities in order to increase their attractiveness on the job market. Essentially, 22-year-olds are young adults trying to find their footing in what they be-

photo from internet source

lieve to be the grown-up world. So they think a little too much about the aspects associated with being an adult, like living on their own and money.

Therefore, on top of academic stress, the transition from family support to independence, and the financial burden attached to a two to four-year experience can create a hostile home, where other stressors seems to lurk at every turn, in the laundry room or even in the form of a roommate. The relationships we make in college with friends, professors and significant others have lasting impressions that add to the rocky terrain of being a college student.

Stress is everywhere, but does that matter? American culture almost exclusively views health in terms of a biomedical approach, the concept that illness can be prevented and treat-

ed using our knowledge of anatomy, physiology and biology, or in other words, dealing with the body. Most students know this is not the case.

Health is holistic, and as regarded in the field of health psychology can include social and psychological factors in addition to the biological ones.

Not so surprisingly, there are myriad risky behaviors embraced in such a domain, either as a result of these incredible levels of stress or unfavorable circumstances that enhance the influence of stress.

Sleep deprivation, binge drinking, eating disorders, bullying, suicide (a leading cause of death for the college-age population, according to the National Center for Health Statistics’ Vital Statistics Report) and risky sexual behavior are all terms that have been associated with headlines of

stories depicting inhabitants of a college campus. This is a rather extreme range, but all of these are very real matters of concern in this population.

These are not statements of observation but issues that are based on undoubtedly common opinion. For example, 89% of college students report poor sleep, says the Journal of American College Health. A lack of sleep can obviously affect energy and compromises one’s immune system.

It also strongly affects one’s mood and even negatively influences how an individual evaluates oneself. Another fact that is difficult to dispute is that four out of five college students drink regularly and half of those who drink partake in binge drinking according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, an excessive consumption in a short amount

of time. The impulse to drink away worries at the end of the week seems to be a natural inclination in college culture. It is such a uniform belief that students encourage each other with misleading conceptualizations of drinking, like “You’re not an alcoholic until you graduate.” Though often an act of social bonding, drinking can become a caustic outlet for strong emotions and stress, as well as a way to fit in or compensate for a lack of self-esteem.

Stress is overwhelming and can make people feel as if they are struggling just to remain afloat. The resulting need to feel in control is a possible explanation of eating disorders and aggressive attitudes like bullying. Basically, college is a setting where stress thrives and nurtures the acquirement of worrisome behaviors as a consequence.

The competition and great fervor of the college experience does not look to be slowing down any time in the near future. Epidemiologists and other health professionals are constantly looking to limit illness and educate the masses in order to prevent health issues. I believe there are plenty of said issues and illness originating in the college environment. A college campus is made up of residence halls, lecture halls, dining halls and a variety of other facilities. With the quality of these matters aside, it’s how we act and why that is a concern of public health that is unique to the population, residing on a college-campus.

Of course these issues exist in other populations, but not nearly as high in concentration. The fact of the matter is that a college campus is a unique socially constructed microcosm made up of a narrow age range with very specific circumstances that could make the experience of higher education an accidental site of social experiment. This is not just a concern for those who have chosen a discipline in health. Every student has to take a look at the decisions they are making and how it affects their well-being.

Whether it is physically apparent or not, there are public health issues prevalent on college campuses today.

September 25, 2015

OPINIONS 15

The Brandeis Hoot

An outdated custom, tipping should be abolished

By Nicole Porter

Special to the Hoot

Imagine that you are out to dinner with your significant other. Maybe it is a first date, maybe it’s your anniversary, but it is a romantic meal at a fancy restaurant. You have just finished a delicious dessert of tiramisu or a delicious slice of apple pie a la mode. You remove your silk napkin from your lap as the check arrives at your table in a black leather case. You open the case and read the check slowly until you reach the bottom of the thin paper slip.

How much do you tip the waiter?

Think about it to yourself right now: Do you tip 15 percent, 20 percent?

Less, more? Once you pick a percentage, think about why you picked that specific number. Did you tip more to impress your date or less because the meal was expensive on its own? Did you tip 15 to 20 percent because that is the customary amount a person tips according to countless studies?

Although I can’t guess how much you said you would tip, I can guess at one thing. Most of you didn’t even think about the fact that you heard nothing about the service quality from your waiter in the scenario above. But isn’t that what tipping is all about, rewarding good service and punishing bad

service? Not necessarily anymore.

Tipping hasn’t always been a custom in the United States. Actually, if you went back in time to the early 1900s before Prohibition and tried to tip your waiter, it would be seen as a form of bribery and inconsistent with values of equality and democracy.

However, in the late 1910s as Prohibition came about, restaurants’ opinions of tipping rapidly shifted; what was once bribery became an obligation.

As restaurant owners saw a large loss in profits due to the inability to sell alcohol, they had to find a way to spend less money to stay afloat. Therefore restaurateurs began to promote tipping their waiters and waitresses so that they could remove some of the financial burden of paying their servers.

Basically tipping became a custom so that restaurateurs could pay their workers less, making their patrons pay for better service. Since the 1920s, tipping has been a custom in America, along with the lower wage of tipped workers. The minimum hourly wage of a non-tipped worker is $7.25, while the hourly wage of a tipped worker is $2.13. The $5.12 an hour difference is supposed to be made up in tips, but why should a tipped worker depend on other people to pay them a supposedly living wage?

But if tipping is a worldwide custom, why not just live with it? Because tipping isn’t a worldwide custom at all; most countries do not typically expect tipping at the end of every meal. The custom of tipping to pay staff is almost unique to the United States and Canada. Even in the United Kingdom, where most people say the custom of tipping in the United States came from, tipping is not always expected or necessary. All wait staff have the same minimum wage as other workers, which is £6.70 an hour or $10.22 (starting on Oct. 1 for employees over 21 years old). Therefore, tipping isn’t necessary for the waiter to make a living wage and isn’t a customary thing to do, but is thought of as an extra gift when given.

Isn’t tipping important, though, to give the waiters incentive to provide great service to get a larger tip? Sadly, tipping has changed from its original goal of being an incentive for better service, and the relationship between tip percentage and service quality barely exists. A study into the relationship between tipping and service quality was performed by Cornell University in 2010. Business school students went to a variety of restaurants and recorded information about their experience, including a rating from one to five for service quality

and what tip percentage they gave.

The results of this experiment found that the “specific relationship between service quality and tip percentage varied across subjects … most participants increased their tips by one to two percent of the bill for each one point increase in service rating on a five point scale; however, many varied their tip percentages with service quality hardly at all.”

This means that the difference between horrible service and great service was only about five percent of a tip. Also, many people didn’t change the amount they tipped even if they rated the service differently. If great service barely has an effect on the type of tip received, why provide great service? Why not just give servers a steady income and treat them as nontipped employees? If they are giving horrible service, then fire them.

Even some cruise ships are employing a non-tipping system where the wait staff ’s tip is included in what you pay and then divided among the workers. Popular cruise lines like Norwegian Cruise Line have employed this technique of charging a $12-a-day extra service charge (paid before you get on the ship) to be spilt and paid as a tip to the staff. Since employing this new technique, Norwegian has seen no drop in service

quality on their ship. However, they have saved passengers the stress of calculating and arguing over tips for each of their servers and staff at the end of the cruise.

After all of this, why is tipping still a custom in the United States? We don’t like change—it is as simple as that. We could give servers a normal wage and increase the price of the food a slight bit, like every other industry does, and therefore save restaurant patrons the time and argument of figuring out how much to tip. But instead we leave a timeworn and outdated custom in place for old times sake. This is not a new discussion either; even the popular YouTube channel “Collegehumor” published a video on this subject early this year titled “Why Tipping Should Be Banned—Adam Ruins Everything.”

Tipping is an obsolete tradition that needs to be abolished. However, this absolutely does not mean you shouldn’t tip your waiter or waitress.

But these facts should make you think about why we keep this old custom as you look at the leather bound case holding a thin sheet a paper. And as you bring your pen to the paper and decide whether the waiter will make more than minimum wage or not this hour, you should remember that the only way to make change happen is to stand

9/11 memorial inappropriate avenue to express

By Zach Phil Schwartz Editor

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2015, two members of Brandeis Democrats, three Brandeis Conservatives and other volunteers collaborated to put together a memorial to remember the lives lost on that day in 2001. They placed close to 3,000 flags on the Great Lawn early that morning in what was supposed to be an apolitical display of remembrance. Later on in the day, however, unidentified people turned the display to a political statement, repositioning the flags to say “PROUD OF IRAQ?” The Great Lawn had been reserved through the university for the arrangement. The flags were also private property. The students who had set up the memorial devoted hours to putting it together. There was significant student outrage after the vandalism of the

memorial was noticed, but those responsible have not been found.

On a day of remembrance and mourning, an insensitive political message was made at the wrong place at the wrong time. Although free speech is an inherent right that must be protected, this vandalism attempted to drive a stake through the unity that was formed when both liberals and conservatives put aside their differences for a day.

To Brandeis students and members of the broader community who lost friends and family on that day, any desecration of a memorial can be offensive. Although the rearrangement made a powerful statement, this was not the proper means to that end.

If those responsible wanted to invoke their political views on the War in Iraq with an arrangement of American flags in the way they did, their right to free speech allows them to do so. The

same message could be made on another day without vandalizing a memorial that students worked tirelessly to put up. Of course it is an act of defiance and it says something about how strongly people feel about Iraq, but what else were the perpetrators hoping to accomplish? They tried to invoke politics. Inadvertently, they invoked grief.

Any 9/11 memorial should remind us of those lives lost and unite us against those who wish to do us harm. The direct U.S. response to the attacks, being the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides of the conflict, was disastrous, and people have a right to be angry about it. People have a right to speak up about it, but a memorial is not the right place.

This vandalism of the memorial has made clear the lack of space for political messages on campus.

If there was a wider avenue for ex-

pression, perhaps the perpetrators would not have felt the need to desecrate the memorial. We need to make sure that free speech is available for everyone on campus so that students do not feel as if vandalism and other similar acts are necessary to get their opinions across.

Furthermore, private property and reservations of campus space need to be respected, especially

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when ideologically dissimilar students put aside their differences to memorialize the lives lost 14 years ago. Vandalism is not a form of free speech. Desecration is not a form of free speech. It is disrespectful and it drives grief. It is, most of all, offensive. Next time, the perpetrators should keep that in mind before they try to make an apolitical memorial a political statement.

photo from internet source

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September 25, 2015

ARTS 16

The Brandeis Hoot

Piano performance pays homage to Miriam Jencks

By Sabrina Pond Editor

Brandeis held a program as part of their concert series titled “J. S. Bach in the Age of Romanticism” on Saturday, Sept. 19, in Slosberg Music Center. Intended to honor Miriam Jencks, who passed on July 21, 2015, fortepianist Robert Hill played moving musical ballads that paid tribute to a time of musical excellence in all its grandiosity. It would take a musical performance of a whole other caliber to properly commemorate such a distinguished woman, whose passion for music left a huge impression on Brandeis’ music department.

Jencks is deserving of her own concert, though few are aware of her overarching contributions to Brandeis. Jencks is especially notable because of the degree to which she helped shape Brandeis’ music department as a whole and to the appreciation of early music generally. Her donations helped fund the implementation of the Early Instrument Room, which houses a plethora of early instruments intended for student use. Incredibly enough, this room, which was made in memory of her late husband, William P. Jencks (BCHM), includes instruments such as the harp, lute, and sackbut, among many others.

Surviving Sodexo: Taco Tuesday

By Charlotte Aaron Staff

Taco Salad, created by Olivia Leavitt ’19, is healthy and light meal that can be assembled in both Usdan and Sherman dining halls—a unique feature of the dish. Leavitt, a member of the varsity tennis team, usually assembles the salad before practice, as it is a good source of protein, but not heavy.

Ingredients Lettuce Corn Cheese Protein (tofu, beef or chicken) Tomatoes Salsa Black Beans Recipe Fill a bowl with lettuce (preferably iceberg or romaine). Crunch two handfuls of tortilla chips into small pieces and mix them in with the lettuce. Add corn, diced tomatoes, black beans and mild salsa to the salad.

Next, sprinkle cheese on top. To finish the salad, mix in protein, whether that be tofu, beef or chicken. “Usdan doesn’t have grilled chicken all the time, so you have to be more creative there,” Leavitt said. When given the choice, Leavitt prefers to use grilled chicken as her protein. To mix the salad, Leavitt usually uses utensils, but it can also be mixed by using a second bowl to cover the bowl with salad and shake the contained ingredients. Once the salad is mixed, it is ready to be eaten.

Most memorably, Jencks also donated a fortepiano, ca. 1835, from Vienna to the Brandeis Music Department.

Beyond that, she sponsored Early Music in the Boston area over the course of four decades. Needless to say Jencks’ passion for early music was uncanny, and her generosity exceptional. With both of these assets, she was capable of building one of Brandeis’ departments to its character today. Both Jencks and her husband contributed enormously to Brandeis’ history, and have subsequently paved the way for future students to explore the realms of music and biochemistry.

The performance, which was in and

of itself a melodious, tonal rendition of the most respectful dedication to her and with a staggering amount of grace, Hill was able to convey respect where it was due. There was no better way to pay tribute to Jencks than through an hour long performance of the preludes from the Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, performed in the key order of the Chopin Preludes Opus 28. Very fittingly, Hall played the piano that Jencks had donated, since its original donation had encouraged the musical journeys of countless Brandeisians. This fine musical instrument, on which endless hours of harmonious pieces have been played, was finally put to use remembering

the woman who made those journeys possible.

As a musician Hill is especially gifted and well-versed in his craft, entertaining his audience with soft, peaceful melodies and yearning rhythms. Each individual song spoke to Chopin’s unparalleled harmonic innovation, though there is speculation that Chopin’s preludes were not necessarily intended to be played together. These pieces might have been written with the intention to act as starter pieces in order to ease into musical performances. If the preludes were so-called generic pieces, then that fact speaks to Chopin’s outstanding musicality and

photo by

Sharon Cai/the hoot

originality. Chopin can be regarded more as a creator in every sense of the word, capable of demanding more passion and integrity from pianists with his frequent use of improvisation and his outright versatility. Hill was capable of conveying the finery that is Chopin’s music with grace and effortlessness. The performance may have been free, but the quality of the performance was priceless.

All in all, the Miriam Jencks Memorial Concert was an extremely rewarding performance on several levels. Classical music, which is very much undervalued in modern times, was upheld as a fine art that it is. A live performance demands the audience to use all the senses--specifically sight and hearing--to appreciate the pianist’s talent. The performance helped unearth part of Brandeis’ great history; even though the university is comparatively new, having been founded in 1948, there is still a lot that has been chronicled over the course of seven decades. Learning part of that great history highlights the generosity of many contributors, as Brandeis wouldn’t be able to provide the same opportunities that it currently does for its students without their selfless donations. Music has the power to speak on a whole other plane, and so it is important that these truly wondrous, early forms of music are not forgotten, because as soon as the craft of classical music is gone, that is when music has lost all of its grace.